California Insurance Commissioner Candidates Clash Over Public Disaster Insurance Plan

California voters will soon choose a new insurance commissioner, with former San Francisco supervisor Jane Kim and state Senator Ben Allen as the leading Democrats. Kim’s platform includes a publicly run, nonprofit disaster insurance program that would collect a portion of existing premiums, invest them, and use excess capital to fund fire- and flood-proofing projects, drawing on examples from New Zealand, France and Spain.

Experts consulted by one outlet note that while public-private insurance partnerships exist worldwide, many doubt that such a scheme would lower costs or be fiscally sustainable for California’s high-risk environment. In a separate development, off-duty ICE officer David Gonzalez of Texas was indicted on felony assault, elderly abuse, battery and vandalism after he allegedly attacked a homeowner and the homeowner’s daughter in Fresno, prompting the father to shoot Gonzalez, who remains hospitalized.