The Miami Herald editorial board wonders why the state’s leaders devote all their time fighting WOKE but ignoring the dramatic rise in insurance rates.
Ron DeSantis and the Republicans in the legislature have spent an entire session battling drag queens, gays, trans kids, public schools, Black history, librarians, and academic freedom. They have given each other high fives, but homeowners will get hikes in their insurance, which was not on the political agenda.
We know all too well that Florida property insurance costs have been skyrocketing, with no end in sight. Now there’s a new study that shows just how bad it’s gotten, and it’s even worse than we thought.
According to the data analysis company LexisNexis Risk Solutions, the state’s property insurance costs are up by an incredible 57% since 2015 — nearly triple the national average of 21%, as the Miami Herald reported.
If that weren’t enough misery, Florida distinguished itself in another way: Insurance costs have been rising faster in Florida than in any other state.
Given all of that, you might expect to see the governor and Legislature running around as though their hair was on fire, trying to come up with fixes for our crippled insurance market before regular, non-rich Floridians are forced out and lawmakers get blamed for destroying the middle class.
Lawmakers distracted
But that’s the kind of logic that worked in saner times. In 2023, Florida’s leaders are so busy trying to get Gov. Ron DeSantis into the White House — with a legislative session tailored to his agenda, no matter the cost — that they can’t be bothered to spend much time on insurance, even though it’s a complicated and important issue that affects regular people.
No, in Florida, the long-running and worsening property insurance crisis has been buried under an avalanche of anti-woke measures, the ones DeSantis seems to think will carry him to Washington.
That’s a dangerous strategy. As the Florida governor hits the campaign trail in places like Iowa, he leaves himself vulnerable to charges that he’s not taking care of business at home.
For example, on Wednesday, the governor was set to visit the U.S. southern border. It’s a clear attempt to generate more headlines on immigration, following another taxpayer-financed stunt in which Florida flew migrants from Texas to California. Meanwhile, Floridians back home will be facing record hikes in flood insurance — an average hike of 131%. Where’s the governor’s outrage on that?…
The state is facing a property insurance crisis. Where are our leaders?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hurricanes and sea level rise are reasons I would not want to live near the Florida coast. Not defending Florida politicians. Past lax building code enforcement really hurt the insurance industry.
Ron Debacle has been too busy trying to establish himself as national leader to be concerned with issues important to Florida residents and their pocketbooks. His insurance plan makes it harder for Floridians to get Big Insurance to honor their agreement to pay claims to homeowners.
“A recent Washington Post article found insurance companies are now refusing to cover the cost of Hurricane Ian-related damages and are drastically reducing insurance payouts after DeSantis and Florida Republicans used two legislative sessions to protect insurance companies and help their bottom line. This is the real “Florida Blueprint” DeSantis doesn’t want the country to see.” https://www.floridadems.org/2023/03/17/reminder-desantis-lined-the-pockets-of-insurance-companies-while-floridians-suffered/
malfeasance
Very interesting, since DeSantis’s management of the initial phase of Hurrican Ian was reportedly masterful, and coming just a few weeks prior to his re-election campaign, probably contributed to his huge margin of victory.
So do you guess they’ll understand the value of “woke'” when they have to swim away from their houses after they are under water?
In 2022, the majority of Florida’s voters re-elected a fascist governor and legislature that doesn’t care about them, the state, property insurance, et al.
4,613,783 Florida voters in Florida re-elected their fascist governor who is without doubt a domestic enemy of the U.S. Constitution.
Still, 40% of the voters, 3,105,469 votes for Charlie Crist (D). Therefore, be careful how you talk about Florida’s voters. Do not lump the millions that did not vote for the fascist together with those that did.
I take your point, but the majority of Florida voters chose to vote for DeSantis.
Do they value low or no state taxes more than a state government that just might pay attention to rising sea levels and the property insurance crisis?
Just asking
Those state taxes won’t stay low if beach communities are washing away into the sea.
No state income taxes in FL is cute, but doesn’t pay the bills. They get their pubschools and whatever other dwindling FL public goods from a sales tax that is actually higher than NJ’s.
I did the numbers. A person earning minimum wage in NJ makes 28% more than a person making minimum wage in FL— but FL’s COL is only 14% less. NJ’s state tax for that min-wage earner = $427 = 1.45% of their gross salary.
Meanwhile everyone from poor to rich in FL pays 7.06% on every purchase except groceries, medicine, & as of last year, clothing for children 5yo or younger. NJ residents are exempt for sales tax on clothing for anyone of any age, as well as for household goods… Who is better off?
A sales tax is a regressive tax—the same tax for rich and poor
DeSantis: a comedy to those who think; a tragedy to those who feel. ________________________________
This might wake up some Floridians, but it won’t make them woke!
This just in: Trump indicted in case that could clear the way for Crusader against the Woke Rhonda Santis.
Seven-point indictment in the documents case, with Trump to appear before a federal court in Miami on Tuesday.
Bob It’s about time. I’m really tired of seeing everyone grabbing their pearls and gasping over Trump being actually indicted. If he doesn’t see himself as above the law, they seem to. I wonder if we will ever see him in jail where he belongs. CBK
The most cynical version of me says that the powerful in the US were just going to let him continue to slide but have decided now that they have to indict and convict him because if he receives the Repugnican nomination again, they lose again. That this is the case is clear. So, removing him from the picture right now via a conviction is necessary in order to put forth a viable Fascist candidate.
Bob Also, if Trump is not found guilty (because of a preponderance of the evidence and not because it’s “politically motivated”) he will IN FACT BE above the law; and the thread that holds the whole democracy thing together at the top will begin to unravel, as began with the Nixon pardon. CBK
We live in a country where a presidential candidate and then president can get away with making a deal with a foreign enemy, Iran, to hold American hostages until after his election and then to release them in exchange for illegal arms shipments and, in exchange for this treason, have a national airport renamed for him and his statue erected on the Mall. How many hundreds of Joe and Jane Morons heeded the seditionist Trump’s call to attack the Capitol to prevent the lawful transfer of power and have now, as a result, been sent to prison while Trump was continuing with his golfing and tweeting and stuffing his fat face with cheeseburgers? The wealthy and powerful can do the most egregious stuff and get away with it. Epstein had all his properties wired with video and still cameras and BRAGGED to acquaintances that he had the dirt on everybody who was anybody. And where did all that those recordings go? They vanished. Poof. As though they never existed.
There’s a lot going on that smells to high heaven. Trump is a career criminal and a traitor to his country. It’s disgusting and shocking that he has been able to walk free for so long.
Reuters:
A federal judge has ruled that Tennessee’s law restricting drag performances in public or where children are present is unconstitutional, striking a blow to efforts in U.S. states to regulate LGBT conduct.
Next stop: Flor-uh-duh, please.
Today the Houston Chronicle published an article about the 25 best drag queens in Houston and where to see them. They are performers. They are funny.
This is an ancient and honored tradition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travesti_(theatre)#:~:text=Travesti%20is%20a%20theatrical%20term,performer%20of%20the%20opposite%20sex.
Google the Williams Institute at UCLA, which is the authoritative source for estimates of the population of transgender youth and adults. It’s about 1% of the population:
“Executive Summary”
Recent data from the CDC’s Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) provide an opportunity to update prior population estimates of the number of adults and youth who identify as transgender in the U.S. In 2016 and 2017, the Williams Institute used data from the 2014-15 BRFSS to estimate the number of adults (ages 18 and older) and youth (ages 13 to 17) who identify as transgender. Since then, a total of 43 states have used the BRFSS optional gender identity module for at least one year, providing more years of data from more states since these initial estimates. Additionally, in 2017, the YRBS, a national survey of high school students, began asking respondents if they are transgender. Since 2017, fifteen states have included this question in their YRBS statewide questionnaire. In this study, we use data from the 2017 and 2019 YRBS and the 2017- 2020 BRFSS to find that:
Over 1.6 million adults (ages 18 and older) and youth (ages 13 to 17) identify as transgender in the United States, or 0.6% of those ages 13 and older.
Among U.S. adults, 0.5% (about 1.3 million adults) identify as transgender. Among youth ages 13 to 17 in the U.S., 1.4% (about 300,000 youth) identify as transgender.
Of the 1.3 million adults who identify as transgender, 38.5% (515,200) are transgender women, 35.9% (480,000) are transgender men, and 25.6% (341,800) reported they are gender nonconforming.
Research shows transgender individuals are younger on average than the U.S. population. We find that youth ages 13 to 17 are significantly more likely to identify as transgender (1.4%) than adults ages 65 or older (0.3%).
The racial/ethnic distribution of youth and adults who identify as transgender appears generally similar to the U.S. population, though our estimates mirror prior research that found transgender youth and adults are more likely to report being Latinx and less likely to report being White compared to the U.S. population.
Our estimates of the percent of residents in U.S. regions who identify as transgender range from 1.8% in the Northeast to 1.2% in the Midwest for youth ages 13 to 17, and range from 0.6% in the Northeast to 0.4% in the Midwest for adults.
At the state level, our estimates range from 3.0% of youth ages 13 to 17 identifying as transgender in New York to 0.6% in Wyoming. Our estimates for the percentage of adults who identify as transgender range from 0.9% in North Carolina to 0.2% in Missouri.
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/
Fascinating, Diane.
I added the source.
The historic political formula is quite simple. Pick on minorities with little or no influence or affluence, make them the boogie man because the majority of the population is too occupied to notice who these “evil” personages might be, and convince the ignorant that their existence is an existential threat. The Republican Party plays fear because their actual political agenda cannot be defended. They choose their enemies carefully to manipulate gullible followers. The bad part is that this works far too often.
Paul Bonner It’s an old story: If it’s your game field, but you find you are losing the game, then close the field and take the ball home. CBK
Because the trans population is so small, they make good scapegoats. But I have no doubts that the fear mongers will target all gays in time. What this has to do with Marxism is beyond me.
Exactly.
“Marxism” and “Socialism” in the mouths of Repugnicans today mean nothing except “something you should hate.” These terms are now simply generalized invectives. If the Pugs hate something, it’s Socialism or Marxism. And ungodly. And unpatriotic. Whatever that something might be. I keep waiting for someone to ask the renowned lexicographer and political theorist Donald Trump to tell us what “Marxism” is. LOL.
Fascists require scapegoat groups–groups of people to direct the hate of their mobs toward. In Germany it was Jews and Communists. Here, now, it is Marxists and gays and lesbians and trans people and immigrants. CRT, supposed groomers among teachers, supposed pornographic curricula–these are just subjects for their Two-Minutes Hates.
What many of these Republicans don’t understand is that the core progressive motivation is making things better. The right wing projects liberals as hateful because Republicans embrace disdain for others. The fact that most of the Republican presidential candidates, such as Nikki Haley’s declaration that trans gender care is the greatest threat to women’
s health, so often speak in terms of wiping out political opposition is because it is them who hate anyone who disagrees.
A cousin of mine in Kentucky, whom I used to play with as a kid, just posted to her Facebook page a photorealistic picture of an Arc sitting on a mountainside, with a rainbow above it. The caption: “The rainbow is a symbol of the promise God made to humans, not of people’s confusions about sex.”
We are two incompatible countries. Junk like that makes me want to tear out what hair I have left and weep. Well into the 21st century, we live in a nation of bigots drawing upon the values systems of peoples living 2,500 years ago.
Bob Between you and me and no one else, there is reason to think that, though our U.S. democracy is not “too big,” it may be “too stupid.” CBK
agreed
No one else will ever know, CBK. LOL.
Bob I’m trusting you to remain quiet on this. But swimming around in a pool full of poison does take its toll. CBK
This is the type of posting that makes this blog look ridiculous and absurdly partisan. Property insurance premiums in Florida have increased dramatically in recent years because of the LOSSES suffered primarily due to hurricanes. No politician of any stripe has control over that factor.
Ben,
I didn’t write the editorial about insurance rates. The editorial board of the Miami Herald did. They seem to think that the governor and the legislature should address the issues that affect the people of Florida instead of engaging in political stunts.
So, let’s just continue with the climate change denial and refusal to cap emissions. Then, perhaps, one day, people can take dive trips to visit the former Mar-a-lago.
Reminds me of the Onion headline:
“Nothing can be done about gun deaths says only country where mass shootings are an everyday occurrence.”
Ben Woodley– We have terrible flooding here in central NJ too, & not just when hurricanes hit [altho that is the worst], & some residents in worst areas, on the river [just 2 miles from us], have gotten govt $ to raise their houses a story above ground level on beams. Yet their combined home & flood insurance is 1/5 of Florida’s. Does FL really have 5 x as much flooding?
Then there is this east coast smog that is terribly inconvenient. I wonder what the death rate will be for people with various lung ailments? To lambast the blog because we actually see what our climate disaster is bringing us is quite funny. However, people following politicians who don’t really care about their followers is no longer humorous.
In other news: Russia keeps piling on the war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-nova-kakhovka-dam-in-ukraine
I participated in a comment thread to a related article where a Floridian shared that flood insurance per se is not the main issue – it’s home insurance, and his had escalated from $5k to $19k in the last few years.
I live two miles from a very flood-prone town in central NJ [a river runs through it], where some homeowners have had their houses raised a story by beams [houses on stilts]. So I scoped out the insurance rates for that town. Between flood insurance and home insurance, the most they’d pay is $4k/yr. FL rates: !!!!
Guardian posted an article, “Four controversial doctors helping Republicans attack trans healthcare.”
Right wing religion drives the doctors. Based on their credentials and work history, authorities like judges, medical panels, etc. deemed them unqualified to be rendering opinions on the subject matter.
Vast amounts of the people don’t see this but I believe this is highly political in which red States are targeted by the Woke Elite who have great influence with insurance companies. Florida has hurricane problems so they will use this as an excuse to play -up insurance rates. You will notice that, since Biden has been president, all of this has been happening to blue state Florida.
Biden did not cause insurance rates to rise in Florida. DeSantis did. Biden has no influence with insurance companies.