[StBernard] Fair Plan is "Unfair" to private policy holders

[Westley Annis]

Westley,
 
This is food for thought and I'd welcome comments on this from any lawyers
out there.
 
I just finished watching the Channel 4 news story about the Louisiana and
state of Florida's Citizens plan for homeowners coverage.  It talked about
how the State of Louisiana is charging a percentage fee to every policy
holder of homeowners insurance with private carriers like State Farm,
Allstate, etc.  Now, here's where my question comes in....is this legal from
a constitutional standpoint?  I'll explain.
 
While I'm not a lawyer, but I do know that all taxes, fees, service charges,
surcharges must be levied on a constitutional foundation.  In other words,
if every tax payer, or in this case, every homeowners policy holder is to be
charged/assessed a tax/fee, then somehow each of those policy holders must
be able to either benefit or potentially benefit from whatever service,
program or product for which the fee/tax was collected.  To put it more
bluntly, "if the state makes you pay, then you get the right to play."
 
But that's not the case here.  Each homeowner policy holder is being forced
to pay a fee  for a program which he/she CANNOT possibly benefit from.  This
raises serious constitutional issues.  Also, let's not forget about the
Equal Protection clause from the U.S. Constitution (which each state is
subject to in its own constitution and statues) where all citizens must be
treated equally.  In this case, home policy holders are being charged this
fee/tax but people who own their home and choose not to carry homeowners
insurance do not have to pay this.  That should be a violation under the
Equal Protection clause.
 
Certainly, there has to be some ambitious lawyer out there who would want to
challenge this under a class action law suit to stop it plus get some kind
of refund for all of us who have already been charged.
 
If the state of Louisiana wants to raise revenue for the Citizens plan, let
them appropriate for it through the state's general budget and from general
revenues.  But don't specifically charge me a fee/tax to fund a program
where I can NEVER benefit from.

 
John Scurich