Windstorm Insurance has been a very hot topic among people who own property in Monroe County. The Insurance is facing a rate increase so high that it will force many Florida Keys Homeowners to sell their property. There are several groups and organizations fighting this increase (My favorite is FIRM ) but the true fight needs to be fought by every property owner in Monroe County. If everyone does their part we can win by strength in numbers. Contact any elected official in The State of Florida and Monroe County. Tell them that you oppose this increase and you vote.
The following article was posted in The Key West Citizen today:
Special session to focus on windstorm
Citizen Staff TALLAHASSEE — A close friend of Gov. Jeb Bush confirmed Thursday afternoon that the governor plans to call a special session of the Legislature the first week of December to tackle soaring windstorm insurance rates. J. Allison DeFoor, an attorney, former Monroe County sheriff and judge, and former adviser to the governor on Everglades restoration, said Bush has not yet made it official. "The call has not been issued, but the reservations have all been made," DeFoor said. Since legislators officially take office upon election, state Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West, would attend the session. Saunders, who is attending training in Tallahassee, said no announcement has been made. "Everybody knows it's going to happen," DeFoor said. And while the focus will be on windstorm insurance, DeFoor said other housekeeping matters would be added to the agenda. "The business community understands that Florida is having an economic heart attack right now," DeFoor said. "This has the ability to crush Florida's economy." He said the insurance issue became political because, for the past 12 years, insurance commissioners who had other political ambitions kept an artificial lid on premiums. Bush said on Thursday that he wanted to talk to Gov.-elect Charlie Crist and state CFO-elect Alex Sink before calling the session. He said he would speak to Crist on Tuesday. "I talked to the leadership in the Senate and House, and there seems to be broad consensus [for a special session]," Bush said in a press conference Thursday morning. The session will center on Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings' interim report from an insurance task force that she chairs, said Bob Lotane, spokesman for the state Office of Insurance Regulation. "The task force has a meeting on Nov. 15, at which time the report will be discussed, and it will contain some if not all of the things [Bush] would want to bring up," Lotane said. The 2006 Legislature passed an insurance overhaul bill in the final minutes of the session, and many state officials are just now learning the consequences of some of the new law's provisions. For example, the law calls for different rates for homesteaded and non-homesteaded homes, with Citizens no longer insuring non-homesteaded homes after March 2007 unless a property owner has a sworn statement from one or more agents that says other coverage is unavailable. Also, after July 1, 2008, dwellings valued at more than $1 million become ineligible for coverage. That document will have to be revisited, said Teri Johnston, a founding member of FIRM (Fair Insurance Rates in Monroe). FIRM was instrumental in obtaining significant rate reductions for Monroe County property owners. "They watered down the bill," Johnston said. FIRM members went office to office talking to people about it, but legislators didn't take the time to study what they were passing, she said. "[Attorney general candidate] Skip Campbell was the only one aware of it, and he didn't get elected," she added.
