With billions in property damage from the last hurricane alone, Florida’s property insurers were screwed, but it was just the latest blow to an industry that has survived primarily because they get bailed out by the government after every natural disaster–and from hurricanes to sinkholes to conservatives in The Villages setting things on fire–there’s a lot in Florida that needs covering.
But according to Politico, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is going to bring the state’s legislature into a special session to fix the industry, which if it follows the way Republicans have fixed things in the past, it’s fucked. “It costs way more to replace a roof today than it did just three years ago,” DeSantis said in a statement apropos of nothing. “So we need to do everything we can to push back on that and fight for a more competitive market where rates are incentivized to go down.”
The bigger problems for Florida property insurers are pretty obvious to anyone who isn’t a conservative: Florida is a low-lying, flat state that was once swampland surrounded by water as hurricanes are becoming more powerful and water levels are rising due to climate change. Add to that crappy building codes put in place by Republican-led state and county governments and you’re looking at year after year of massive claims that only the might of the federal government could cover. For the industry to survive in Florida, it needs to increase its rates to the point that most people couldn’t afford to live there, but because DeSantis is a self-serving Republican, he’ll promote a tax break for everyone as a way to cover the fact that he’s relying on the socialist payouts from the government to do what the private sector cannot.