Gov. Jared Polis releases plan to lower Colorado home insurance premiums by $800 a year

Gov. Jared Polis says relief is on the way for Colorado homeowners struggling with high insurance premiums. The governor on Thursday released a report called Colorado's Roadmap to Reduce Homeowner's Insurance Premiums.

"With this Roadmap, with previous legislation, with current legislation combined, I am highly confident we will achieve an $800 reduction in out-of-pocket costs for homeowner's insurance by the end of next year," the governor said at a press conference where he unveiled the Roadmap.

Polis and Insurance Commissioner Mike Conway say Colorado's insurance premiums have soared 100% in the last six years.

Among the key components of the Roadmap are measures to make homes more resilient, including a wildfire building code that ensures new homes are fire hardened and legislation that, if passed, would help fund hail-fortified roofs across the state.

"Hail risk is significant and biggest driver of premiums even in counties that don't see as much hail," said the governor.

Colorado is second in the nation for hail claims, and the governor says those claims account for two-thirds of our premiums.

A bill sponsored by state Rep. Kyle Brown would assess a .5% fee on insurers to fund a $30 million grant program for homeowners to buy hail-fortified roofs.

"Hail-resistant roofs can be more expensive," says Brown. "So, we want to make sure that cost is not a barrier for folks when they are trying to create a more resilient community and more resilient home that will ultimately benefit everyone in terms of their insurance rates."

Under the bill, insurers -- who support the measure -- couldn't pass the fee on to policyholders.

Conway says his office will ensure homeowners' rates account for their mitigation -- both hail and wildfire. Starting in July, insurers must provide homeowners with wildfire risk scores that include mitigation efforts.

"We need to encourage people to do more mitigation, but in order to encourage them we need to make sure that they're getting that return on investment," said Conway.

Another bill by state Sen. Marc Snyder and state Sen. Lisa Frizell making its way through the legislature would allow homeowners to put $50,000 a year into tax-exempt savings accounts that they could use for mitigation, hail-fortified roofs, or insurance deductibles.

The governor says Colorado has the sixth most expensive homeowners' insurance in the country but, he says the measures outlined in his Roadmap will drop us to 13th by the end of next year.

"We want homeowners insurance to be less expensive rather than more expensive and that's exactly what we're going to deliver on," Polis said.