ORLANDO–The director of The Heartland Institute’s Florida Insurance Project today praised Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corporation CEO Scott Wallace’s request for acceleration of Citizens’ currently pending rate increase “glide path.” Wallace made his comments during a speech at the 2010 State of the Florida Insurance Market Summit being held in Orlando.
Under the “glide path” established in legislation signed into law last year, Citizens, a state agency that sells more insurance than any private property insurer in the state, will increase its rates over a five-year period until, in theory, the rates reach the “actuarially adequate” level needed for the agency’s books to balance. Accelerating the “glide path” would shrink Citizens’ own policy count, allow more room for private insurers to compete, raise rates in storm-prone areas of the state and, very likely, lower them elsewhere. It also would reduce significantly the chances that the state would impose special taxes, called “assessments,” to pay off Citizens’ deficits.
“The legislature would do well in heeding Mr. Wallace’s advice,” said Christian Cámara, director of Heartland’s Florida Insurance Project. “The sooner Citizens’ rates are actuarially sound, the less likely working families, businesses, churches, and charities will be hammered with post-hurricane taxes.”
Camara can be reached at (305) 608-4300 or [email protected]. Eli Lehrer, a senior fellow of
The Heartland Institute and director of its Center on Risk, Regulation, and Markets, can be reached at (202) 615-0586 or [email protected]. Wallace’s office at Florida Citizens can be reached at (850) 513-3774.
