Florida Democrats say GOP is a threat to homeowners this hurricane season

With experts already forecasting the worst hurricane season on record, Florida Democrats say another threat has already left its mark on homeowners in the state:

Florida’s Republican leadership.

“We are in a cost-of-living crisis,” state Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said Wednesday.

Fried was joined by Democratic allies in blaming years of Republican leadership in the state for contributing to Floridians paying among the highest property insurance bills in the nation, compounding other woes including inflation and a lack of affordable housing.

“Today we are paying the price of 30 years of failed Republican leadership and an army of culture warriors more concentrated on banning rainbow flags and lights on bridges than addressing the No. 1 concern for voters in this election – the economy,” Fried said.

Republican Party of Florida chair Evan Power shot back in a statement, "Biden is to blame for the disastrous economic policies that has Floridians reeling with pain at the pump and at the supermarket," though he did not mention insurance costs.

"Inflation is a hidden tax that eats away at any chance of savings and high interest rates makes it even worse but Floridians aren’t fooled by Democrats," he added.

GOP has responded with industry-friendly measures

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Legislature have been trying to prop-up the state’s staggering insurance market, enacting a half-dozen industry-friendly measures since 2019. Among them are new restrictions on lawsuits against insurers and steering $3 billion in taxpayer money into a new reinsurance pool for companies. 

As the six-month hurricane season began June 1, industry experts say the market in Florida is healthier than it’s been in years, with new insurers writing policies in the state, nine companies proposing to reduce rates next year and another 10 submitting plans for holding the line on rates.

Still Floridians continue to pay some of the highest property insurance premiums in the nation, about $6,000-a-year on average. Those in South Florida counties are shouldering closer to an average $11,000, industry analysis shows.

Florida’s $6,000 property insurance average is 42% more than it was in 2022 and triple what it was when Gov. Ron DeSantis took office in 2019. According to national analyses, homeowners elsewhere pay an average $1,700 in property insurance.

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Rep. Susan Lopez-Valdes, a Tampa Democrat and Joe Saunders, a former Democratic House member from Orlando now running for a Miami Beach-area House seat, were among those joining Fried on the Wednesday Zoom call.

Also participating was Rahman Johnson, a Jacksonville City Council member, and Samantha Herring, an insurance professional.

Not enough for consumers, Democrats say

They criticized ruling Republicans for focusing on insurance market reforms which are primarily favorable to the industry, not consumers.

GOP leaders shunned measures intended to hold down rates and Democrats warned that state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., with 1.2 million customers, could be so damaged financially by a major hurricane that all Floridians could be slapped with a new tax.

At the same time, though, the Democrats voiced support for legislation which failed to advance last year that would’ve sharply expanded Citizens, giving it authority to write wind coverage for every Floridian.

Overall, the Democrats said ruling Republicans had failed to consider all options when it came to tackling property insurance.

“We have got to change the trajectory of the state of Florida,” Lopez-Valdes said. “For the last 30 years, they owned this place ... the Republicans own all of these things.”

A new poll by the business organization Associated Industries of Florida showed that concerns about inflation and property insurance were the chief issues that would drive Floridians to vote in November.

Democrats have been pounding Republicans for failing to meet the needs of average Floridians. But the party faces long odds at success this fall with Republicans holding a more than 900,000-person lead among registered voters in the state.

John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @JKennedyReport.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Hurricane threats worsened by Florida Republican policies, Democrats say