R Street Institute

Op-Eds

Don’t encourage risky development

by Christian Cámara
Feb 5, 2014
Print
originally published in Miami Herald
The Jan. 30 editorial, Mapping our future, is right to commend South Florida’s governments for doing more to “tackle the threat of climate change” and rising sea levels. But it should have mentioned the key role that state and federal insurance laws play in encouraging development in just the wrong places.

By providing subsidized insurance both at the state level (through the Citizens Property Insurance) and the federal level (through the National Flood Insurance Program), our governments are encouraging development in the areas most likely to be inundated in the near future.

If Florida wants to prepare itself for the possibility of rising seas, its insurance system should not incentivize development in the riskiest areas.

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