Article published Apr 26, 2006

SACRAMENTO - Legislation that would have required thousands of San Joaquin County property owners to pay about $35 a month for mandatory flood insurance died this week without a vote.

Sponsored by Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, the bill failed when no member of the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee seconded a motion to pass it - meaning no one went on record as voting against tougher flood-insurance rules.

"It was very disappointing all the way around," Jones said. "People are not going to have flood insurance, and the taxpayers are going to be on the hook."

The bill was targeted by the politically muscular insurance, banking and mortgage-lending industries.

Jones' measure would have required homeowners and businesses behind 100-year levees to buy federal flood insurance; it's now optional in such areas.

Most homeowners in the Stockton area are protected by 100-year levees. In fact, city residents recently paid a surcharge on their property taxes to raise the levees to that standard so they could avoid buying flood insurance.Federal records from 2004 - the most recent data available - show that only 3,528 San Joaquin County residents have flood insurance; in flood-prone Lathrop, for example, only 26 homeowners have insurance.

Jones will try again next year.

"I'm not going to give up," he said. "You just look at the images of New Orleans: That could very easily happen here in the Central Valley."