photo by kwalk628/Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license
The Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial today on former Governor Charlie Crist’s role in creating Florida’s disastrous property insurance system and the immediate need for reform:
Florida has been hit by some of the most damaging and costliest hurricanes in history, and we’re not talking small numbers. Andrew, Wilma, Charley and Ivan inflicted tens of billions of dollars of damage on homes and businesses over the past few decades. Now the Sunshine State awaits the really big one: Hurricane Charlie (Crist).
When that storm hits, Floridians can thank the former Governor. In a mere four years, he crippled the private insurance market and socialized taxpayer risk into two public institutions: Citizens Property Insurance Corp., an insurer, and the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, a reinsurer. They are structured to fail under pressure. This is a Category Five fiscal problem that would ultimately mean demands for a Washington bailout, so the sooner Florida’s policy makers fix it the better.
Read the entire editorial here.
