Weekly political notes from The News Service of Florida
By Jim Turner The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — While more than a third of this year’s up-tempo legislative session is in the rearview mirror, some big-ticket issues are still in the works, including immigration, election changes and a response to a Washington Post investigation about whether insurance policyholders have been shortchanged after Hurricane Ian.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, was emphatic about keeping an eye on property insurers after lawmakers held two special sessions during the past year to try to bolster the industry.
“You will recall after we passed (one of the insurance bills), my comment was, if the insurance industry does not give us grace, does not lower rates, does not behave, there will be hell to pay. Stay tuned,” Passidomo said last week when asked by a reporter about the Post investigation.
Asked a day later to chime in, House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, said “we’re going to be looking at some additional measures we can undertake to go after bad-acting insurance companies.”
The Post concluded some insurance company payouts to policyholders had been cut up to 97 percent.
“In one claim reviewed by The Post, a nearly $500,000 damage estimate on a house with a mostly tarped roof was reduced to about $13,000,” the report said. “In another, the desk adjusters blamed roof storm damage on past wear and tear, meaning it would not be covered.”
In addition to two special sessions on property insurance, lawmakers also passed a wide-ranging measure (HB 837) this month aimed at shielding businesses and insurers from lawsuits. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill last week.
In response, Reuven Moskowitz, chief operating officer of the Florida-based Morgan & Morgan personal-injury law firm, advised firm employees to no longer play nice with insurance carriers “who just tried to kill us.”
“They work for the enemy who would like nothing more but for you to be unemployed,” Moskowitz said in an internal email. “We work for the people. Exclusively.”
Meanwhile, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis on Wednesday designated Insurance Consumer Advocate Tasha Carter to streamline Ian claims.
“We are going to continue to do everything we can, because we want solutions in place in order to try to help people to get back on their feet, but I want to empower her to work directly with insurance companies and see if we can shorten the timelines based on her history and knowledge of how the claims process should work,” Patronis told the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Board of Governors.
CUBA DEBATE
Republican lawmakers this week moved to rebuke three Tampa-area leaders for dining with Cuban diplomats at the beginning of March. But House Democrats questioned the timing of a resolution of condemnation introduced on Monday.
After filing the resolution (SR 1728), Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, led a contingent in the Capitol courtyard to call out Tampa City Council member Guido Maniscalco, Hillsborough County School Board member Karen Perez and Hillsborough County Clerk of Court Cindy Stuart for having dinner at the upscale Mise en Place restaurant with a Cuban ambassador and other officials from the communist-run country.
The Senate resolution says “it is inexcusable that these officials would break bread with members of an oppressive and tyrannical government.”
Collins called it “unacceptable” and “out of touch” to meet with any Cuban government officials.
“We here in the free state of Florida have nothing to gain from meeting with the leadership of that totalitarian regime,” Collins said.
House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, supported the sentiment of denouncing Cuba’s government but struggled to understand the timing or effectiveness of the resolution.
“Why they’re bringing it up now is beside me, except that maybe they want to use it as a distraction from the bad legislation that’s being passed out of Tallahassee,” Driskell said during a conference call with reporters.
Driskell went on to support engaging in diplomatic talks if it can help Cuban people oppressed by their government.
“Even when it came to ending the Cold War, it took diplomacy,” Driskell said. “It took having some sort of communication with the other side.”
Last year, the Biden administration reversed some Trump-era policies on Cuba, including resuming flights, family reunifications and remittances.
AD WARS
House Republican leaders are looking to shift funding for Visit Florida from the state to local tourist-development organizations. Senate Democrats say that might not be such a bad idea.
Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Hollywood, and Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation, raised concerns that marketing money from Visit Florida, which is led by former Republican Sen. Dana Young, could be seen as a “slush fund” to recruit GOP voters.
Pizzo said if the state agency markets primarily through conservative avenues, the result would be more conservative tourists. If some are enticed to move to Florida, it would bolster Republican voting ranks.
“You may see a Florida tourism ad that is placed in a Thursday Wall Street Journal or on Fox News, not necessarily on MSNBC,” Pizzo said.
But Pizzo added that a “bittersweet” upside of the House’s change could be more marketing decisions by Broward County and Orlando tourism agencies. Those are heavily Democratic areas, so “It might not be so horrible,” Pizzo said.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: “More parents involuntarily drafted into the exclusive club of burying their children in a box because they sent them to school. The first line in the Parents Bill of Rights, should be the right to get your kid back.” — U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., after a school shooting in Nashville killed three children and three adults.