New Mexico eyes unique fix for escalating wildfire insurance costs
[...]
During her 2025 State of the State address, Gov. Lujan Grisham proposed a "state-sponsored," risk-based fire insurance program outside the private market to "protect families and their homes - and to help make people whole when tragedy strikes."
The bill has yet to be filed, but a spokesperson for the governor told KUNM that the program would "require initial state subsidies" to establish a baseline cash reserve and include risk mitigation requirements for coverage and provisions for "limited" state liability.
[...]
The governor's proposal isn't particularly appealing to insurance policy expert Dave Jones, a former California insurance commissioner and the current director at UC Berkeley's Climate Risk Initiative at Center for Law Energy & the Environment.
"Creating some new state taxpayer-funded insurance scheme doesn't change the rising risk associated with climate change and the rising losses associated with climate change," Jones said.
[...]