Orlando Sentinel
by Barney Bishop
March 29, 2011
Our elected officials have weeks left this session to begin the process of reforming our state’s property-insurance market. Working with other groups, Associated Industries of Florida has urged the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott to eliminate the hurricane tax to better protect all Floridians.
Even as a landlocked city, Orlando residents are threatened and burdened with paying hurricane taxes, which in effect subsidize many of our state’s most fortunate — homeowners living on the coast and those with vacation homes. With 1.2 million policies, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. could go broke if a storm were to hit Florida.
Also, the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, on which both Citizens and Florida’s private insurers currently depend, faces the prospect of exhausting its own resources. It could be required to seek mammoth new bond sales in a weak bond market and, if successful, would pay off the bonds through additional hurricane taxes on all statewide policy holders.
Although no storms hit Florida last hurricane season, we’re still paying for the 2004 and 2005 storms because of the debt burden designed into the structure of Citizens and the CAT Fund. Should a storm make landfall on our coast this year, all Floridians would be forced to pay to fund the overexposed Citizens and CAT Fund.
I implore you to contact your elected officials and tell them how important it is to reduce the role of Citizens and the CAT Fund in our private market to alleviate the risk associated with these government entities.
Barney T. Bishop III President, CEO, Associated Industries of Florida
