The Mississippi insurance commissioner has decided to go italone in filing a lawsuit aimed at delaying the onset of floodinsurance premium rate hikes after the state attorney generaldeclined to represent him.

The premiums are scheduled to go into effect Oct. 1.

Jackson County, Miss., supervisors said Monday that the ratehikes imposed through the 2012 law will range from hundreds ofdollars a year to thousands of dollars a year on homes inflood-prone areas and could cause people in middle- to low-incomebrackets to walk away from their homes.

“We are moving ahead with our suit plans,” Commissioner MikeChaney said Tuesday night after disclosing that Attorney GeneralJim Hood had declined Tuesday to file the suit on Chaney'sbehalf.

In the letter, Chaney disclosed that the suit will be filedagainst the U.S. government and its Federal Emergency ManagementAgency, which administers the NationalFlood Insurance Program.

Chaney said in the letter that insurance premiums imposed underthe Biggert-Waters Act of 2012 “significantly changes theNFIP.”

The letter also asks Hood to approve Chaney's decision to hire aprivate law firm to represent the insurance commissioner, anelected office in Mississippi, in the lawsuit.

He plans to file a lawsuit seeking an injunction against therate hikes before bills start going sent out Oct. 1.

Residents of states from Texas to Vermont are protesting theincreases. A group representing New Orleans businesses says someNFIP customers could see rate hikes of up to 3,000%.

That's because some rates have been grandfathered since floodmaps setting rates based on risks were initiated under the NFIPstarting in 1969.

Louisiana officials said that, currently, 49% of flood insurancerates levied in the state are subsidized.