Weekly political notes from The News Service of Florida
By Jim Turner 9/29/2022
TALLAHASSEE — Outgoing state Sen. Jeff Brandes hasn’t held again about how he thinks Hurricane Ian will shake the already-fragile property insurance market in Florida.
TALLAHASSEE — Outgoing state Sen. Jeff Brandes hasn’t held again about how he thinks Hurricane Ian will shake the already-fragile property insurance market in Florida.
Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican who clamored in current legislative classes for lawmakers to take more-aggressive steps to cope with issues in the market, tweeted some “back of the napkin math” on Monday that state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. may see $10 billion in claims if Ian instantly hit the Tampa Bay space.
“If we add in the rest of the industry this could be a 40B+ storm for just insured properties,” added Brandes, who can’t run for re-election in November due to time period limits.
Ultimately, Ian made landfall in Lee and Charlotte counties, an space the place Citizens has far fewer insurance policies than in the Tampa Bay space. But it stays to be seen how the property-insurance system will face up to the monetary wreckage from the large storm.
Gov. Ron DeSantis referred to as a particular legislative session in May that included offering $2 billion in reinsurance — basically backup protection — to assist shore up personal insurers. But issues continued by means of the summer time, as hundreds of house owners every week poured into Citizens after getting dropped by personal insurers.
Citizens President and CEO Barry Gilway stated final week that non-public insurers had been projected to have $1 billion in losses this yr — and that assertion got here earlier than Ian decimated components of the state.
During appearances this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis has stated Florida has the “financial wherewithal right now,” when requested if he has issues about how the insurance trade would fare in Ian.
“We just did a special session. We put $2 billion into a fund to provide a backstop; it kept a lot of them from going out of business. And this is a problem that we’re going to continue to tackle,” DeSantis instructed reporters Monday at the state Emergency Operations Center.
“Clearly, there’s other things legislatively, I would like to see done,” DeSantis continued. “I think we will get that done soon. But this is something that we will respond to.”
DeSantis contended lots of the Ian claims will contain storm surge and flooding, which is largely lined by means of the National Flood Insurance Program, relatively than by personal insurers.
As Ian bought nearer to shore, DeSantis’ tone shifted considerably Wednesday morning, acknowledging “there’s going to be a lot of fallout from this in terms of getting people back on their feet.”
“FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) does have programs that can offer support, but the FEMA support is not going to be equal to what you would have gotten in a flood insurance policy,” DeSantis stated. “And so that’s going to be something that we’re going to have to look very seriously at in terms of what the impacts are of that.”
Florida has seen six personal property insurers deemed bancrupt since February whereas Citizens is dealing with greater than 1 million insurance policies for the first time in almost a decade.
But DeSantis expressed confidence in Citizens.
“Citizens, I think right now they’re between $6 (billion) and $7 billion of surplus,” DeSantis stated Wednesday afternoon. “They’re modeling based on paying out a lot of money in claims for this was that they would still have between $4 (billion) and $5 billion in surplus. And so, they view themselves as being able to weather this.”
Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier on Wednesday issued an emergency order quickly stopping property insurers from dropping prospects, whereas shielding owners from dropping insurance policies if their properties are broken.
NOT JUST ANY HAT IN THE STORM
Hurricane Ian’s strategy to Florida introduced out a well-known trend assertion.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., donned his pale dark-blue cap emblazoned with the phrase “NAVY” throughout an look Monday at the Collier County Emergency Operations Center in Naples.
His workplace despatched out photographs of a casually dressed Scott sporting the cap that turned a trademark throughout hurricanes and different emergencies whereas he was governor. The cap drew further prominence throughout Scot’s 2018 U.S. Senate marketing campaign, which was interrupted when Hurricane Michael hit Mexico Beach weeks earlier than the normal election.
Scott’s reliance upon the hat drew scorn from some opponents.
The group VoteVets briefly ran an advert that featured a Navy veteran from Vero Beach who, sporting his personal Navy cap, questioned Scott’s time working Columbia/HCA, a hospital firm that paid fines for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid.
Scott served 29 months in the Navy in the early Seventies, together with time as a radarman aboard the USS Glover. A scale mannequin of the Garcia-class frigate was displayed in the governor’s workplace throughout Scott’s time in Tallahassee.
Scott apparently went hatless Tuesday — per workplace photographs — whereas at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in Washington, D.C., for a briefing forward of Ian’s landfall.
By comparability, DeSantis, additionally a U.S. Navy veteran, has maintained a gown shirt and jacket — no tie, open collar — throughout appearances this week in Tallahassee, Largo and Live Oak.
TWEET OF THE WEEK:
“Lee County Manager Roger Desjarlais told media about an hour ago: ‘I am sad to tell you that while we don’t know the full extent of the damage to Lee County right now, we are beginning to get a sense that our community has been in some respects, decimated.’” — Miami Herald reporter Joey Flechas (@joeflech).
