{"id":45112,"date":"2024-05-06T20:12:59","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T00:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=45112"},"modified":"2024-05-06T20:13:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T00:13:03","slug":"central-florida-lawmakers-say-special-session-must-address-homeowners-insurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/05\/06\/central-florida-lawmakers-say-special-session-must-address-homeowners-insurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Florida lawmakers say Special Session must address homeowners’ insurance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As chatter persists that a Special Session will be called within weeks<\/a>, Central Florida lawmakers say it must address insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a legislative update presented at a Tiger Bay Club of Central Florida meeting, Rep. David Smith said lawmakers must address the top issue facing Floridians.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve probably all heard rumors suggesting a Special Session,\u201d the Winter Springs Republican said. \u201cHomeowners insurance needs to be at the top of the list.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk has generally suggested that Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative leaders could call lawmakers to Tallahassee before the Governor signs the state budget, leaving significant leverage over members advocating for local projects during an election year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Smith, he thinks it\u2019s a given based on history that DeSantis will veto at least $500 million to $600 million from the budget. He\u2019d like lawmakers to direct that directly to\u00a0My Safe Florida Home<\/a>, allowing improvements that will immediately lead to reduced premiums for homeowners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, agreed with Smith that the only reason to call a Special Session would be if it addressed insurance. \u201cThe rumors right now are that it would focus on issues impacting immigration, and even efforts to add more initiatives to your ballot to confuse voters on Amendments 3 and 4,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope those are just rumors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she said tax relief passed this year and presented by Smith as relief for homeowners would result in little gain for most residents. Instead, she said the Legislature should look at more bold proposals, such as a bipartisan bill from Reps. Hillary Cassel and Spencer Roach that was workshopped but not advanced in the House. That would effectively create a public option for wind insurance<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Lake Mary Republican, discussed the need to create affordable housing, noting that the rising cost of homes is part of the reason for increasing insurance premiums. He noted that lawmakers did pass the Live Local Act, largely preempting local governments from imposing development restrictions that make it difficult to build cheap, dense housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe locals came to the state and said with your Live Local bill, why are you doing this to us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe said for 100 years you could always build affordable housing, you just choose not to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Sen. Geraldine Thompson, a Windemere Democrat, said she\u2019s concerned that Tallahassee has too often taken decisions away from local government, and that has hindered a response to economic concerns within communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe in home rule,\u201d she said, \u201cand I voted against preemption because I think the local elected officials who are closest to the people should have the right to set laws, ordinances, etc., that work for their district, and it shouldn\u2019t be Tallahassee, 200 miles away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Kristen Arrington, a Kissimmee Democrat, noted that lawmakers returned to Tallahassee for a Special Session on insurance not long ago<\/a>, and the subject has constantly hung over the Legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we were here last year and the same question happened and we heard the discounts would be coming,\u201d Arrington said. \u201cWe\u2019re still waiting on those. I do know we are waiving some of the fees for the taxes on this next bill, but we should have done that a long time ago so consumers could see some instant action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Keith Truenow, a Tavares Republican, said it\u2019s time to re-examine some long-running programs, most notably Citizens Property Insurance<\/a>, Florida\u2019s state-run insurer of last resort. He said the state needs to find a way to get more homeowners off that insurance and back in the private marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCitizens Insurance was a novel idea in the beginning, but I think it\u2019s gone way too far and slowed down the capitalistic market, the free market,\u201d the Senate candidate said. \u201cTo adjust and what we need to happen, I mean, depopulating citizens and getting it back to where folks feel like they can come into the state and be profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As chatter persists that a Special Session will be called within weeks, Central Florida lawmakers say it must address insurance. At a legislative update presented at a Tiger Bay Club of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[8420],"class_list":["post-45112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-central-florida-lawmakers-say-special-session-must-address-homeowners-insurance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}