In this editorial from today’s Bee, though defining the recent failure of the bill to require mandatory flood insurance as a failure of a particular party, may actually be a success of public service by understanding that the rationale doesn’t exist for this mandate as it does, for instance, for mandatory car insurance; so allowing it to die in committee may be a good thing.
Here is an excerpt.
Editorial: Democrats' flood failure
Calderon does the bankers' bidding
Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, April 27, 2006
Democrats in the Assembly had a chance this week to distinguish themselves from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his half-baked efforts to protect the Central Valley from a deadly and costly flood.
As usual, the Democrats blew it. Their failure was largely the handiwork of Assemblyman Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, the benefactor of the banking industry.
Calderon chairs the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee, and in recent years he has blatantly used his position to fatten his campaign coffers. Last year, his campaign invited lobbyists to a "Banking and Finance" reception that cost $3,200 per couple. During his first year of office, in 2003, he raised $356,000 from bankers and other contributors; then spent much of it on junkets to Las Vegas and lavish meals.
The banking industry knows it has a good friend in Calderon, and he proved it again this week. Almost single-handedly, Calderon killed a bill by Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, that would have required homeowners living in flood-prone areas to carry flood insurance.
Why did mortgage bankers dislike this bill? For one thing, it might have prompted homeowners to think twice about buying a home in a floodplain. That might have chilled some of the mortgage business, but allowed willing home buyers to recover from a future flood. The bankers also didn't like the original version of Jones' bill, which would have required mortgage lenders to enforce the insurance mandate as a requirement for obtaining a loan.
