WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Day three of the special session in Tallahassee centered around Florida’s Senate debating and passing several resolutions and bills related to the war in Israel and the school voucher program.
Absent from the agenda was the homeowner’s insurance crisis, despite lawmakers writing and filing a bill to provide some relief.
“It is a complex problem but what isn’t complex is Florida families struggling to pay their property insurance which is of course attached to their mortgage,” said Florida State Representative Anna Eskamani.
Written by Eskamani, House Bill 27C would provide residents a one-time grant of up to $2,500 towards their homeowners insurance.
“The proposal would also allow you to look at house much your rate has increased under the administration of Governor Ron DeSantis and then we could compensate the increased costs of his administration,” said Eskamani.
She told CBS12 News the bill was quickly shot down because according to her, some lawmakers don’t think it’s a good way to spend public money.
“I think that many Republicans don’t want to change the current structure because they have already passed a policy that has really given insurance companies everything they want and many of them don’t see the purpose of doing more even those consumers desperately need us to,” said Eskamani.
Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Paul Renner, provided a response to Eskamabi’s claim.
“The Special Session was narrowly tailored to address immediately pressing issues. Representative Eskamani’s bill was outside of the call for Special Session. She will have an opportunity to file her bill for Regular Session. The Legislature will continue to monitor the progress of our historic reforms and enhanced insurer accountability measures, work with all parties to ensure Floridians can access the market, and Members will have an opportunity to bring forward new ideas during the upcoming Session beginning in January,” Renner said in a statement to CBS12 News.
Insurance agents have told CBS12 News the latest laws tackling insurance rates could take years to feel any relief.
See also: Florida special session to address hurricane recovery, Israel and school vouchers
And it comes at a time when homeowners with Citizens Insurance are about to experience another financial blow.
Starting December 16, rates will increase up to 10.7 percent for primary residences and rates for secondary residences will skyrocket up to 38.8 percent.
CEO of Access Insurance Phil Wardell has thousands of clients with Citizens policies.
He says these rate hikes are the latest effort to bring Citizens back to the insurance of last resort.
“The clients they’re not really happy but they don’t really know what else to do, there really is nowhere to go,” said Wardell.
CBS12 News has asked House Speaker Paul Renner why this bill was not discussed during this special session, we have not heard back.
Representative Eskamani says she will continue to introduce legislation until something is done for Florida homeowners.
