NEW YORK (Reuters) — In another effort to bring insurers into the hurricane-ravaged Gulf States, the Louisiana insurance commissioner Friday proposed a $100 million “incentive” to property casualty carriers that write new policies in his state.Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said he would ask the legislature for state matching grants for insurers who make a $2 million commitment to insure homes in his state. The maximum matching grant would be $10 million.

“If fully utilised ... the programme would provide an additional $400 million to $600 million of property insurance capacity,” Donelon said in a press conference.

Donelon’s proposal comes as insurers are in conflict with homeowners throughout the Gulf because of claims dating from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

The 130-mile-an-hour storm caused more than $38 million in insured losses and more than 1,000 deaths, mostly in Louisiana.

As a result of legal battles and hurricane losses, insurers such as Allstate Corp. and State Farm Mutual are cutting back their exposure in coastal areas from Texas to New York.

State Farm, the largest home insurer in the United States, will not write new policies in Mississippi.