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State Lawmakers are closer to a deal to lower your insurance rates than ever before. Both Chambers in Tallahassee are now sitting down to negotiate their differences and as Mike Vasilinda reports, Legislative leaders and the governor remain optimistic their will be success.
Hear it here: hard-work-of-negotiating-begins.mp3

For the third day in a row, angry homeowners like Bob Buckley from Brevard County  swarmed the capitol, pushing for lower insurance rates.  “The deal… the cards are on the table now for us for the governor and up here to change something. And I got the fire in the belly,” says Buckely.

Early in the day, the Senate took all of bills passed by the House, added their ideas, and sent them back, and asked for a conference committee. They got it. Negotiations began in early afternoon and are expected to last into the weekend.

Meanwhile, the governor was keeping the pressure on… noting that insurance has been dominating his thoughts. “I think I woke up at 2:30am today. The good news is I got back to sleep, so we’ll continue to work.”

One of the reasons that lawmakers have gotten so far in just three days is because there’s been absolutely no partisan bickering.

But nothing is a done deal yet.  Danger still lurks in the air as Insurance Lobbyists try to derail some of the changes being sought. And for lawmakers who might get cold feet, the governor had this warning.

“I just want to encourage them to keep working and don’t let up because people back home… when they go home… are gonna’ tell them what they think. And they won’t forget what they did here. They will remember what happened here this week… for a long time.”

A final vote on a compromise is scheduled for Monday. All lawmakers have to do between now and then is agree.