Pennsylvania Task Force Recommends Tax Breaks to Incentivize Flood Risk Management
Andrew G. Simpson reports in the Insurance Journal that Pennsylvania lawmakers should consider granting homeowners tax breaks for water damage expenses, mitigation and repair costs, and flood insurance premiums, according to a new state report.
Those are several of the recommendations by a task force that studied ways to better protect Pennsylvanians from uninsured flood losses by increasing mitigation efforts and encouraging more property owners to purchase flood insurance.
Community Assistance
The Task Force recommends that the state create a post to help communities qualify for federal insurance discounts refers to the Community Rating System (CRS), a voluntary incentive program within National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that recognizes community flood management practices that exceed the minimum requirements of the NFIP. In CRS communities, flood insurance rates are discounted to reflect the reduced flood risk resulting from the community’s efforts to reduce vulnerabilities of properties to flood damage.
The task force said that during its meetings, some presenters expressed frustration with the complexity and resources necessary to become a CRS community. Currently, there are only 1,500 CRS communities nationwide and only about 30 in Pennsylvania. Also, even in communities that have met the qualifications, the task force found that residents may be kept from obtaining flood premium discounts because their community is not formally enrolled in the CRS program.
The report also calls for additional state grants for communities to assist them with flood management activities.
The report urges the state to consider climate and flood resiliency when adopting and maintaining commercial and residential building codes and standards for municipalities.
Randy Padfield, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), called the state “one of the most flood-prone” and noted that recovery is often a years-long effort. “Any steps that we can take to promote flood mitigation activities and assist homeowners and renters with obtaining affordable flood insurance will hasten recovery efforts and benefit our communities and our citizens for years to come,” Padfield said.
Read the full article here.
Read PEMA’s post on the Task Force recommendations here.