State officials have had an epiphany of sorts this summer. They believe many Illinoisans will be spending far too much on homeowners’ insurance.
Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic legislative leaders are upset home-state insurer State Farm is hiking its rates more than 27% on the estimated 1.5 million homeowners it insures in the Land of Lincoln. The increase, one of the highest in the history of the Bloomington-based insurer, is forecast to cost policyholders about an additional $750 a year.
The governor can use his bully pulpit only so far while forgetting capitalism still abides in far-left Illinois. If State Farm policyholders — one in three Illinois homeowners — aren’t satisfied with the cost of their insurance premiums or service, there’s a plethora of other choices in the insurance marketplace to consider.
Those customers surely are awaiting their next insurance bills — State Farm says the rate increases begin on Aug. 15 — to see the pain inflicted on their household budgets. Then they’ll be getting quotes from competing firms.
Losing policyholders is one way to get the attention of the bean-counters in Bloomington. The insurance actuaries say extreme weather and rising repair costs due to inflation are reasons for the rate hikes.
Pritzker, in criticizing the increases, has accused State Farm of using Illinois policyholders to subsidize disaster losses elsewhere. The company claims it has lost money in 13 of the past 15 years due to replacement costs from severe weather incidents.
The insurer said last year it paid out more than $638 million in hail damage claims in Illinois alone, second only to Texas. There may be more hail-damage claims this year if the roof and siding firms plying Lake County neighborhoods are any indication.
In another one of those idiosyncrasies of Illinois government, the state does not have a vehicle to prevent insurance rate hikes. As home to a number of insurance companies, besides State Farm, lobbyists have persuaded lawmakers over the years that the least oversight is the best.
While the governor’s outrage is aimed at one insurer, he has said little about some of the triple-digit increases in ComEd bills Chicagoland residents have suffered since extreme heat waves in June — the sixth-hottest on record — and July strained air-conditioners. Although he has urged the legislature to adopt legislation to hold down electricity costs, his ire directed toward ComEd has been weak compared to calling out State Farm.
The spike in the wholesale cost of electricity combined with increased energy usage added $67.28 month-over-month to the average June 30 bill, the monopoly utility reported. We also get charged state tax on that monthly bill.
ComEd bills issued to its millions of customers on July 14 noted the price hike in the fine print: “You may notice a higher supply charge on your electric bill this month. That’s because the cost of electricity on the wholesale market has gone up.” The utility had warned in June that the supply and transmission portion of bills would rise by nearly $11 a month.
In December 2024, the Illinois Commerce Commission granted ComEd a $606 million hike in delivery rates. In another kink in Illinois utility law, if ComEd doesn’t make its profit, the company is given extra reconciliation” money to make up the difference.
Electricity rates are expected to remain high next year, too, as demand from data centers and artificial intelligence uses is pushing the state’s power grid. Electricity costs are draining residents’ finances so fast that ComEd ended a grant program to aid those impacted the most after being overwhelmed by applicants. In three weeks, about 70,000 people applied for some of the $10 million the company offered in one-time grants of up to $500 to pay utility bills.
While Pritzker remains indignant over State Farm, he might also direct some extra ire toward Comcast which will be moving Marquee Sports Network, the pay-TV home of the Cubs, to a higher-priced tier in the fall. It will cost fans an additional $20 a month outlay to the cabler.
That’s on top of the regional monthly sports fee Comcast charges subscribers, which totals $20.25. Now that’s something for the governor to get peeved about.
Or he might want to direct some anger at the high property taxes Illinoisans pay, the second-highest in the nation.
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Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
X: @sellenews