We Floridians are facing finding out the state of devastation due to Hurricane Helene on top of already dealing with huge invisible tax increases by consumers (call it a climate tax) because of GOP MAGAs’ impulse to keep denying the effects of climate change as a catalyst for the increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather events and who prefer to move insurance consumers into the private market instead of financially bolstering  the state-run provider of last resort for consumers’ property insurance.

When I get upset, I get angry and yes, it’s upsetting to watch TV News showing whole neighborhoods under flood. We here in the Tampa Bay area were hard hit even though we were not directly hit by Hurricane Helene. The best we can say, is that it could have been worse. But our hearts ache as we are witnessing the loss of properties and the suffering of our neighbors in North Florida and Georgia.

After Hurricane Helene, the time has come for DNC, other political PACs, and individuals to donate to the democrat party’s Rep Debbie Mucarsel-Powell to replace the GOP MAGA Senator Rick Scott and former Florida governor who works within a party of climate change deniers. In the past, I remember well the GOP MAGA Senator Scott resorting to the infamous GOP cop-out talking point, “I’m not a scientist.” (Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has also used that phrase.)

Voters can’t help but wonder, what’s going to happen to the property insurance market in Florida? In the recent past, there have been huge invisible tax expenses (CLIMATE TAX) due to consumers having to pay astronomical property insurance premiums, if they can get it because of numerous past hurricanes and because too many GOP MAGAs leaders insist on being climate change denialists.

This is an issue that cuts along all ideological lines. It’s a problem that touches all Floridians. The high insurance premiums add to the cost of purchasing a home and landlords having to raise rents. This is inflationary.

Yet, in 2023, on ideological grounds, the GOP MAGA Florida Governor Ron DeSantis nixed access to $346 million in federal monies via the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that could’ve been used in part to help homeowners improve the infrastructure of their properties to better mitigate against the harm done by extreme weather conditions and part could have been used to prevent the power outages, we’re seeing today. After lots of backlash, he reversed this decision in 2024, a year later but not in time before Hurricane Helene.

In south Florida, it’s not unusual for a homeowner to pay $11,000 annually for homeowners’ insurance.

But in May, Florida’s Governor Desantis affirmed his climate change denial bona fides by signing a 2024 bill stating affirmatively that Florida’s state government will no longer be allowed to consider climate change issues when crafting any policy or legislation related to energy issues.”

Florida’s GOP MAGA US Senator Rick Scott has very recently gone on CNN to announce that he believes climate change is causing an increase in storms, but his current stance doesn’t line up with his past actions. The following Tampa Bay Times and NY Times reports, detail how the GOP MAGA ex-governor, Senator Rick Scott failed to fix Florida’s property insurance problems (2011- 2019)…

As per the September 16, 2024 Tampa Bay Times article by Kirby Wilson and Lawrence Mower, “Florida’s property insurance crisis is Rick Scott’s fault, Dems say. Is it?:”

Excerpts:

“Politicians across the political spectrum agree: The Florida property insurance market is catastrophically dysfunctional.”

“Politicians can’t agree about how to fix it — or whose fault it is.”

“Those 2 questions are coming up in a big way in this year’s contest for U.S. Senate. Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is hoping to unseat Rick Scott, the Republican incumbent who oversaw state insurance policy for eight years as governor.”

“(Debbie) Mucarsel-Powell says Florida’s insurance woes started under Scott.”

“Under Rick Scott’s self-serving agenda, Floridians across the state were crushed by skyrocketing insurance rates and an affordability crisis while he raked in millions and rigged the game in favor of his donors,” Mucarsel-Powell wrote in a statement.”

 “Property insurance costs are a major issue in our state and Floridians expect leaders who will solve problems, like Senator Scott has done, instead of screaming insane lies.”

“Lawmakers and industry experts say Scott’s policies as governor did not help create a stable insurance market, but other factors outside his control have had a bigger effect on consumers. A June survey conducted by Florida Atlantic University found that the greatest share of surveyed voters blamed Gov. Ron DeSantis for the insurance crisis.”

“During his 8 years in office that began in 2011, Scott tried to foster the growth of private insurance companies by moving Floridians off policies offered by the publicly backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. But instead of creating a healthy private marketplace, Scott’s moves encouraged undercapitalized companies to set up shop here.”

“Of the 25 companies that state records say were approved to take on Citizens plans from 2013-18, more than half have either left Florida, cut back on business here or folded. (Most of the companies that folded did so years after Scott left office.)”

“Rick Scott is a true believer in the private sector and private enterprise. And that’s great,” said Mike Fasano, the Republican Pasco County tax collector and former state representative who criticized some of Scott’s moves at the time. “But at some point, you have to come to the realization that in this case, it’s not going to work.”

Scott accomplished his goal as governor

“In Tallahassee, Scott had a big idea about how to improve Florida’s insurance market, and his team worked tirelessly on it.”

“Citizens, which the state created in 2002 as an insurer of last resort for homeowners, had grown too large in Scott’s view. The state-backed nonprofit was holding well over 1.4 million policies, a figure that Scott worried could lead to a financial disaster if a major hurricane hit. If Citizens couldn’t afford to pay out claims made by homeowners, the company would have to charge policyholders a costly assessment.”

“Barry Gilway, whom Scott hired to lead Citizens in 2012, said Scott summoned him to his office on Gilway’s first day as Citizens CEO. He met with the governor about every 2 weeks on average afterward. (Gilway also served for three years under DeSantis but said he has never met him.)”

“He just said ‘Look, you have a job to do here. I’m going to be on your case every single week until you get this thing under control,’” Gilway said.”

“Depopulating Citizens, Gilway’s main task, was not in itself controversial. The way Scott went about it was.”

“He signed a bill in 2011 that, in part, erased the cap on premium increases for Citizens sinkhole coverage. That caused premiums on that type of coverage to skyrocket — intentionally, with the hope of sending Floridians to the private market.”

“Citizens then began a campaign to double-check homes that had already been approved by state-sanctioned inspectors as ready for a major storm. About 250,000 homeowners who had been approved for insurance discounts saw their savings called into question and, in many cases, reversed. That meant a windfall for Citizens, but a headache for its customers.”

“Under Scott, Citizens also crafted a series of incentives for companies in exchange for taking on Citizens customers. Most notably, the board approved a plan to pay the fledgling Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. up to $52 million in 2013 in exchange for taking on about 60,000 Citizens policies. Reporters noted at the time that the company had given Scott’s political committee more than $100,000. (A Scott spokesperson said the deal was negotiated independently of the then-governor.)”

“As the private sector took on more and more of Citizens’ burden, companies like Heritage were allowed to cherry-pick the least risky plans in Citizens’ portfolio. In 2015, Scott vetoed a bill passed unanimously by the Legislature that would have allowed former Citizens customers to return to the state-backed insurer if their private rates went up by more than 10%.”

“By 2018, Scott had reduced Citizens’ rolls to less than a third of the figure from when he took office.”

“Many of the private companies courted by Citizens failed. In 2015, Mount Beacon Insurance was approved to take on more than 172,000 Citizens policies. Within 2 years, the company had gone belly up. Half a dozen other firms that took on Citizens policies were put into receivership by the state after Scott left office — essentially a death sentence for the companies.”

“Heritage paid its CEO more than $27 million in 2015 — a year with no hurricanes in Florida — then earlier this year got hit with a $1 million fine for failing to properly handle claims related to Hurricane Ian.”

“By 2022, Citizens had more than a million customers again. But this time, those customers had worse coverage — and it cost more.”

“Gilway said some companies that took policies out of Citizens did not have enough money to survive. Companies had to meet the state’s minimum $15 million in surplus — a baseline widely considered to be far too low and still persists today. But the minimum attracted investors.”

“No question he could have required (the Office of Insurance Regulation) to strengthen the capital requirements,” Gilway said.”

Answers are hard to find

“Both (Rick) Scott and (Debbie) Mucarsel-Powell are running in part on fixing the insurance crisis.”

“Both candidates’ (have) proposals (that) are modest. To dig out of the crisis, much of the change must come at the state level, industry observers acknowledge. And even there, solutions are hard to come by.”

“I’m not here to tell you I know the solution,” Shaw said. “I’m just here to tell you what we have done hasn’t worked.”

As per the October 4, 2022 New York Times article by Christopher Flavelle and Jonathan Weisman, “Florida’s GOP Leaders Opposed Climate Aid…:”

Excerpts:

“Hurricane Ian’s wrath made clear that Florida faces some of the most severe consequences of climate change anywhere in the country. But the state’s top elected leaders opposed the most significant climate legislation to pass Congress — laws to help fortify states against, and recover from, climate disasters, and confront their underlying cause: the burning of fossil fuels.”

“Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott voted against last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law, which devotes some $50 billion to help states better prepare for events like Ian, because they said it was wasteful. And in August, they joined every fellow Republican in the Senate to oppose a new climate law that invests $369 billion in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the largest such effort in the country’s history.”

“At the same time, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has blocked the state’s pension fund from taking climate change into account when making investment decisions.”

“In the aftermath of Ian, those leaders want federal help to rebuild — but don’t want to discuss the underlying problem that is making hurricanes more powerful and destructive.”

“Many of those measures (in the 2021 infrastructure bill, which provided about $50 billion toward climate resilience) were co-written by another coastal Republican, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who called it “a major victory for Louisiana and our nation.” Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, also a Republican, supported the bill, too. Both states face enormous threats from climate change.”

Both Mr. Rubio and Mr. Scott voted no.

See: Barack Obama backs Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s U.S. Senate bid