Florida lawmakers may drive up insurance rates on some homeowners — and do little to bring down rates for everyone else

One of Florida lawmakers' final acts this session may be to raise property insurance rates on some homeowners. Plus: Top stories, notable quotes, and bills on the move from Week 8 of the 2024 session.

Photo credit: NOAA Satellites

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As the Florida Legislature enters the final week of its 2024 legislative session, one of the last things lawmakers may do before they leave Tallahassee is raise property insurance rates on thousands of homeowners across the state.

To be clear, lawmakers wouldn’t raise anyone’s rates themselves. But they may do so indirectly, by pushing part-time residents out of the state’s public insurance company, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and into policies sold by “surplus lines” insurance companies.

A surplus lines policy isn’t your typical insurance. Surplus lines insurers are largely unregulated by the state — which means they can charge much higher prices and provide far fewer consumer protections than a conventional insurance company.

A surplus lines policy doesn’t even guarantee that your claim will still be paid if the company goes under.

And yet, legislation poised to pass in the closing days of session would allow surplus lines insurers to cherry pick homeowner policies from Citizens.

Now, the bills (House Bill 1503 and Senate Bill 1716) would only permit surplus lines insurers to take over polices that do not cover a “primary residence.” That means that any Floridian who currently has a policy from Citizens covering a home they live in for at least nine months of the year would still be safe.

But it would leave an estimated 80,000 Florida homeowners currently enrolled in Citizens at risk of being forced onto the surplus lines market, according to the Tampa Bay Times. That could include many elderly retirees who spend their winters in Florida.

Among those lobbying for the idea, according to the Times, is Tampa-based Baldwin Risk Partners — a surplus lines insurer that has given about $325,000 to Florida politicians and political committees over the past two years.

This legislation passed the state House on Friday by an 81-28 vote. But even some of the lawmakers who voted for it are worried about the potential fallout.

During a committee hearing earlier this session, Rep. Tom Fabricio — a Republican from Miami, a part of the state that is especially reliant on Citizens for insurance coverage — called the idea “a little scary.”

“I think that may cause some of my constituents’ premiums to go up on their second homes,” he said. “And it’s not going to come down for their primary home.”

Nibbling around the edges of a crisis 

That second part is especially important.

Because it’s possible that throwing snowbirds and other second homeowners to the surplus-lines wolves may be the only thing of substance that Florida lawmakers do this session on property insurance.

They are nibbling around the edges in a few places. For instance, lawmakers appear likely to pass House Bill 293, which could make it easier for homeowners living under rigid homeowners’ associations rules to install things like metal roofs, shatterproof windows, and backup generators. They’ll probably put more money into a hurricane-hardening grant program, too.

Lawmakers might also pass a bill (Senate Bill 1104 or House Bill 1149) to help Floridians whose homes are damaged during a hurricane. That legislation would generally prevent insurance companies from canceling coverage before a homeowner finishes making repairs — although the original proposal has already been watered down amid opposition from insurance industry lobbyists.

But there doesn’t appear to be anything in play for the final week of session that would deliver meaningful relief to most Florida homeowners, who are now paying the highest property insurance prices in the country.

For most homeowners, the only help from Tallahassee this year is likely to be a small — and temporary — tax cut.

The Senate, for instance, has proposed slashing a handful of taxes and assessments on most home and flood insurance policies for one year. It mostly mirrors an idea that Gov. Ron DeSantis publicly pitched before the session began.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) told his fellow senators last week that the tax cut would save homeowners an average of $63. That’s a tiny number in a state where the average annual home insurance premium is now around $6,000, according to the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute.

And that’s probably the ceiling on savings. The House of Representatives wants to do an even smaller insurance tax cut that would probably save Florida homeowners less than $30 an average. (Meanwhile, both chambers want to continue spending hundreds of millions of dollars on more tax breaks for businesses.)

Years from now, it may turn out that the most important thing Florida lawmakers did on property insurance this session was to hold a half-hour hearing on a truly dramatic proposal: A full public option for hurricane insurance open to all Florida homeowners.

It’s a bipartisan idea that has the potential to make insurance in Florida affordable again. But it would also require a radical shift from the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature. Simply allowing the conversation to start is a necessary first step.

Of course, that’s of cold comfort to Floridians getting hammered on their home insurance right now.  

Quotes from the Capitol

“There is only one way to teach about slavery in Florida, and that is that it was evil. But if we can’t have an honest discussion and say that some slaves were paid for their work — and were able to actually get a portion of payment that slave owners received for their labor — then we’re afraid of teaching accurate history.”

— Rep. Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola), while debating in favor of a bill further expanding Florida’s “STOP WOKE Act.”

“Some Democrats want to take our guns. They complain about gun violence — much of which is Black-on-Black crime and uses stolen guns.”

— Rep. Bobby Payne (R-Palatka), while presenting a bill that would lower the legal age to buy a gun in Florida.

“Remember, when you lay your head down tonight, thank a farmer. But thank the business owner that’s behind that farmer, making sure that our wages are kept at a minimum wage and that we’re not telling them what they have to do.”

— Rep. Lauren Melo (R-Naples), while debating in favor of a bill that would block local ordinances requiring businesses to pay higher wages or provide protections to employees working outside in extreme heat.

Billtrack

In honor of my favorite show on Florida politics — and in celebration of their upcoming office renovations — here’s a look at some of the bills on the move last week:

• House Bill 275: The bill would increase criminal penalties for trespassing on or tampering with infrastructure facilities such as gas pipelines, phosphate mines and power plants. Passed the Senate by a 39-vote. (Vote sheet)*

• House Bill 433: The bill would erase local living wage laws, block local “Fair Work Week” requirements, and prevent communities from setting heat-protection standards for outdoor workers. Passed the House by a 79-33 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 611: The bill would allow credit unions to provide checking accounts to government agencies, rather than only allowing banks to do so. Passed by the House by a 76-36 vote. (Vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 676: The bill would set statewide rules for food-delivery apps. Passed the Senate by a 39-0 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 705: The bill would prohibit local governments from requiring their construction contractors to pay higher wages or provide minimum benefits to their workers. Passed the House by an 80-32 vote. (Vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 738: The bill would weaken a law that makes industrial polluters financially accountable for damage caused by their pollution. Passed the Senate by a 26-7 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 917: The bill would allow homebuilders to employ more 16- and 17-year-olds on residential construction sites. Passed the Senate by a 32-0 vote. (Vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1082: The bill would help agricultural companies that want to build housing for migrant farmworkers. Passed the Senate by a 34-0 vote. (Vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1084: The bill would ban the sale of lab-grown meat and forbid local communities from setting any rules around electric vehicle charging stations. Passed the Senate by a 26-10 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 1195: The bill would forbid city councils and county commissions from raising local property taxes unless they do so by a two-thirds vote. Passed the House by an 85-21 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 1223: The bill would lower the minimum age to buy a gun in Florida from 21 to 18. Passed the House by a 76-35 vote. (Vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1264: The bill would require Florida schools to begin teaching a history of communism as early as kindergarten. Passed the Senate by a 25-7 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 1291: The bill would expand Florida’s STOP WOKE Act to courses and programs that teach aspiring teachers and school administrators. Passed the House by an 81-31 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 1365: The bill would effectively prohibit homeless people from sleeping in public unless they are inside state-sanctioned camps. Passed the House by an 82-26 vote. (Vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1420: The bill would prevent communities from enacting new limits on real-estate development in rural areas. Passed the Senate by a 38-1 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 1503: The bill would allow surplus lines insurance companies to take over policies from state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. covering snowbirds and other owners of second homes. Passed the House by an 81-28 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 1639: The bill would forbid transgender Floridians from changing their gender on their diver license and force health insurance companies to charge higher prices for policies that cover gender-affirming care. Passed the House by a 75-33 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Bill 7073: The bill would provide an assortment of tax breaks to businesses and consumers, with the biggest tax breaks going to businesses. Passed the House by an 88-17 vote. (Vote sheet)

• House Joint Resolution 7075: The bill would place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot doubling a property tax exemption for business equipment. Passed the House by an 88-23 vote. (Vote sheet)

*Denotes bills that have passed both the House and Senate and now go to the governor to sign or veto.

Reading list

• Utility Fraud and Corruption Are Threatening the Clean Energy Transition (Mother Jones)

• Ron DeSantis Is Attacking the Greatest Food Innovation Since the Corndog (Heatmap News)

• Nvidia’s $70 Million Florida Supercomputer Hobbled by DeSantis Law (Bloomberg)

• For marketing, New College of Florida hires former pro-DeSantis super PAC spokesperson (Miami Herald)

• New College of Florida hires professor who argued in favor of colonialism (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

• Florida knew prison well could be contaminated but let women keep drinking (Tampa Bay Times)

• What’s Florida Highway Patrol doing at the Mexico border? Here’s what we saw (WKMG)

• Investigation shows the scope of a sweeping anti-union labor law passed in Florida (NPR)

• 'Those folks are not welcome': How a DeSantis priority is changing Florida universities (WLRN)

• Florida cities want to ban noisy gas leaf blowers, go electric. Tallahassee may stop that (Miami Herald)

• State lawmakers move to block proposed growth limits in Orange County (Orlando Sentinel)

• Florida prison system needs billions of dollars in repairs — but lawmakers say 'no' (Tallahassee Democrat)

• Legislation for Toxic Secret chemical 1,4-dioxane dies in Florida House (Orlando Sentinel)

• 2024 session: Bills to expand benefits for Florida public workers stalled out (Tallahassee Democrat)

• As Florida advances camping ban, Orlando’s homeless ask, ‘Where are we supposed to go?’ (Orlando Sentinel)