Florida lawmakers finalize property insurance plan that includes rate cuts of up to 40 percent

Sunday, January 21st 2007, 6:55 pm

By: News On 6

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ Florida homeowners could see property insurance rates cut by as much as 40 percent under a plan finalized Sunday by lawmakers hoping to reverse hurricane-fueled increases many residents say have threatened to price them out of their homes.

Lawmakers said the wide-ranging proposal they'll vote on Monday is expected to provide savings of up to 20 percent for many of the coastal customers of Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-created company that has become Florida's largest property insurer.

Rates for property owners insured by private companies are also expected to come down under the plan, which would still need approval from Republican Gov. Charlie Crist.

Crist has demanded that lawmakers send him a bill that will provide meaningful rate relief. He hasn't specified exactly how much savings the plan would have to provide for him to sign the bill, but he hinted that the proposal that emerged Sunday evening was likely to be up to par.

Noting that his bottom-line standard has been ``meaningful lower rates across the board,'' Crist said he was ``encouraged that's what we're going to see.''

Republican Sen. Jeff Atwater, an author of the bipartisan plan, said he was confident that Citizens customers in the high-risk coastal areas of the state would see 15 percent to 20 percent rate cuts when they renew their policies. In addition, lawmakers canceled a 56 percent average rate increase that Citizens customers would have been hit with this year, and they rolled back a recent 21 percent rate hike.

Much of the proposal was hashed out over the weekend, and it was mostly finished Saturday night. But lawmakers worked Sunday to find a way to provide more relief to customers of Citizens Property, which provides the wind coverage for many on Florida's coasts.

The state-created company was envisioned as a last-resort insurer for those who can't get private coverage, but it has grown to be the state's largest property insurer with 1.3 million customers.

Insurers including Allstate Corp., Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., MetLife Inc. and State Farm have canceled or limited homeowners policies or significantly raised rates in an effort to reduce exposure to future catastrophes since Hurricane Katrina.

Sen. Steve Geller urged Florida residents to ``hold on a little longer'' after many of them complained that spiraling rates to cover their homes against wind damage have threatened to force them to move out of state.

``We know the fort is surrounded, but the cavalry is on the way,'' Geller, a Democrat and chief architect of the plan, said Sunday after lawmakers triumphantly ended negotiations on the issue.