Houses meets on Insurance - FAR

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Dec. 6, 2006 - Florida's legislative leaders have been crowing for months about the importance of a solution to Florida's property insurance crisis.

House Speaker Marco Rubio is demonstrating just how critical he considers the issue, summoning the 120 members of the Florida House to Tallahassee for three days this week for a seminar on the conditions that have prompted soaring insurance bills, the exodus of private insurers and the state's growing role as insurance provider.

"This is an important issue - one that threatens to overshadow and consume us," the Coral Gables Republican told his charges Monday in a Florida State University ballroom.

The intent, Rubio said, is to get members "all on equal footing" prior to the Jan. 16 special legislative session on property insurance. There are 36 new members of the Florida House - although a handful have served prior terms or changed districts - and Rubio said he wants "open, honest and energetic discussion" by all members.

They were briefed Monday on everything from the science behind storms to the state's budgeting process. Today, they meet with Alex Sink, a Thonotosassa Democrat who will be sworn in as the state's chief financial officer next month. There are also sessions on reinsurance, mitigation, the state's ratemaking process and past legislative action.

It will cost taxpayers about $10,000 to hold the conference, though this week had already been scheduled as a legislative "committee week," when lawmakers gather for preliminary work prior to the March-April legislative session. The money already had been budgeted for legislative travel this week.

By Wednesday, House members will be presenting their ideas formally on how to restore the private market and reduce rates.

Rubio said he recalled previous special sessions that were "largely the domain of three or four people going into a small room with their staff, deciding what's going to be passed. ... This is too big and too important an issue to be relegated to that."

The 40-member state Senate is not participating, but many of its members have years of legislative experience and only a handful of seats changed hands in last month's election.

State Rep. Jim Frishe, R-Pinellas Park, said he's appreciating the crash course. "There's a lot of new information here," said the veteran of a 1984-1990 legislative stint.

"I'm optimistic that there are some things we can do. ... There is going to be an upward adjustment in premiums, that's just a fact of life. But part of the regulatory environment can be altered to our benefit. The insurance industry has some answering to do in this equation also."

Copyright © 2006 Tampa Tribune, Fla.,Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.