One group our state legislature always looks after is the wealthy. It’s why our state tax system, based on sales tax, is so freaking bonkers. If you’re working class, you pay. If you’re rich, you get exemptions (yacht repairs, skyboxes, tickets for the Superbowl, etc.)
Well over a decade ago, our legislature created Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, (known simply as “Citizens”). This is a state-run insurer which was meant to provide property insurance for home-owners who could not otherwise obtain it.
The goal sounded noble, but the motive was always to give subsidies to the uber-wealthy who wanted to build on the coast.
That's not just me ranting, that's actual research:
The policy subsidies offered by Florida’s state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. flow disproportionately to the wealthy and, in concert with similarly regressive subsidies from the National Flood Insurance Program, serve primarily to encourage more development in risky regions along the coast.
To put that simply: Citizens is unfair, stupid, and a mess.
It requires Floridians who live inland—like me—to subsidize large premiums for coastal properties, which makes no distinction whatsoever between someone's primary residence or a second home in a posh area such as South Beach. If you ever see the huge coastal mansions on TV or movies, know that people like me are being forced to help pay for that.
This whole program was promised to us as only being available as a "last resort," yet as of today, Citizens is the largest insurer in our state. So tell me how that’s worked out?
Unfortunately, the subsidies also allowed a lot of expensive development in areas where they probably shouldn't have been building. There is now a “staggering swath" of new homes and buildings in Irma's path. We have built up quite a bit in South Florida since Hurricane Andrew, which is why damage from Irma is expected to cost at least $100 billion.
Citizens has been artificially on sound footing for the past few years. This wasn’t due to any great management or leadership, but rather to the fact that we haven't had a major hurricane in 13 years. This hurricane season changes everything, and is expected to do major damage to Citizens.
I have one piece of advice for them to help minimize the damage, and it’s one that applies to all insurance companies in Florida: investigate claims—especially from known liars.
Trump took $17 million in non-existent damage to Mar-a-lago. He even admitted he didn’t need it, and pocketed at least some of the money. I see why he thought he could get away with it (and actually did). We are Florida. Giving our money to those who need it least is what we do.
The only silver lining to the upcoming devastation is maybe we’ll all collectively realize that we just can’t do this anymore.