Welcome to

The 52 private insurance companies writing polices in Florida lost a total of $847 million through the end of September, causing them to raise rates by 50 percent or more.

That’s forcing homeowners into Citizens, the state’s insurer of last resort, but if the state approves, those already in Citizens will also see double digit rate hikes.

With a Monday vote Citizens, the insurer of last resort in Florida, moved forward with across the board rate hikes of 11 percent for anyone who renews after August 1st 2022.

Citizens would then raise rates 12 percent across the board for renewals after January first 2023.

“The private carriers are non-renewing policies across the state. They are raising rates, high rates,” said Michael Peltier, a Citizens spokesperson.

Peltier told us lawsuits are driving the increases.

“Florida represents about 8 percent of the property insurance market across the country. However, at this time, we represent about 76 percent of all lawsuits relating to property insurance,” said Peltier.

Even with the hikes, Citizens’ own study shows it’s the cheapest alternative 97 percent of the time.

Legislative changes earlier this year require a homeowner to accept a private insurer as long as it is no more than 20 percent higher than Citizens’ rates.

But even with the new criteria, Citizens policies are mushrooming.

“Since January, Citizens policy count has risen about 38 percent,” said Peltier.

Under the legislation passed earlier this year, rate hikes can grow one percent a year, up to a 15 percent across the board in 2026.

“Trying to do what they can to bring Citizens rates more in line with what the private market charges,” said Peltier.

And the 11 and 12 percent hikes approved by the Citizens Board for next year and the year after must still get the okay from the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation.

Lawmakers are expected to make tweaks to insurance regulations when they meet in January, but any changes could likely take a year or two before consumers see any relief from rising costs.

Governor Ron DeSantis has proposed spending $99.7 billion to run the state for the year beginning July 1st, 2022.

There is more money for schools, the environment and some tax breaks.

The biggest break could save motorists more than 25 cents a gallon for most of the second half of next year.

The Freedom First budget is how the Governor is billing his spending plan.

“Florida is clicking on all cylinders when it comes to economy and budget,” said DeSantis at the Thursday announcement.

The proposal is flush with billions in federal money, which the Governor wants to use to offset the state’s gas tax for five months starting in July.

“Which will be a cushion and a buffer against the rising gas prices we have seen,” said DeSantis.

There is also $650 million for teacher raises, who along with police and other first responders, will also see thousand dollar bonuses.

“That’s over 175,000 individuals,” said DeSantis.

Other school employees could see only minimum hikes, which the Florida Education Association argues doesn’t go far enough.

“We are seeing a drain of the profession from teaches and bus drivers, to cafeteria workers and paraprofessionals,” said FEA President Andrew Spar.

Per student spending rises to a record $8,000 under the plan.

And the Governor is putting his foot down, demanding there be no tuition increases.

In a post-announcement news conference, Democrats said they will fight to do more more for average Floridians.

“Parents are scared because children have to wait in the dark for a bus that may or may not come pick them up,” said State Representative Angie Nixon.

But the Governor told us if Democrats had their way, Florida wouldn’t be able to afford what he is proposing.

“They would have locked down and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. They criticized me for keeping the state open,” said DeSantis.

The Governor is also asking for a 30 percent increase in cancer research, more money for nursing homes, and more help for Alzheimers patients.

Florida currently has a $15 billion reserve that is expected to grow to $17 billion before the budget kicks in on July first.

Lawmakers still have to approve the proposal.

Some tweaks are inevitable, but since taking office, this Governor has gotten most everything he wants from lawmakers.

A judge in the state capital could decide as early as Friday whether companies with links to the Seminole Tribe have been interfering with petition gathering efforts to allow new casinos in Florida.

Florida Voters in Charge claims the companies are trying to keep the casino measure from making the 2022 ballot.

Florida Voters in Charge had just over 205,000 verified signatures on Monday.

Wednesday the number was up to more than 228,000, but it’s still a long way from the 891,000 needed by the end of the month.

A lawsuit filed last week alleges a handful of companies with ties to the Seminole Tribe are engaging in illegal activity by interfering with the people they hired to gather signatures.

“There is an emergency here,” said Jim McKee, an attorney representing Florida Voters in Charge.

They got to make their first arguments before a judge.

“People are being poached. People are being paid off to leave the state. For what purpose? For the sole purpose of trying to not have the requisite number of signatures obtained between now and December 30th. We’re only 22 days away,” said McKee.

The pro-casino group asked the judge to immediately order the anti-casino groups to stop interfering with its petition gathering activities.

“I deny that request at this point,” said Circuit Court Judge Angela Dempsey.

Those being sued asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

“Fundamentally judge, they are seeking to silence. They’re seeking to silence the number of voices that speak against them with vague allegations,” said attorney William Shepherd.

Instead, the judge scheduled a hearing for Friday afternoon on the motion to dismiss.

If the suit survives, a hearing on the merits is set for next Tuesday.

The effort by the anti-casino groups is called blocking, and insiders tell us they have never seen such a fierce effort to keep an amendment off the ballot.

Preliminary data shows that from January 1st to December 5th, 70,974 citations were issued in Florida to people driving without a valid drivers license because they couldn’t afford to pay a ticket or other fine.

Many end up in a vicious cycle when they keep driving, but this year there appears to be an appetite in the State Capitol to keep people driving and working.

The daily booking reports are seldom without someone caught driving on a suspended or revoked license, often for the second or third time.

“It’s constant,” said Alachua County Public Defender Stacy Scott. “For many reasons, people lose their license for financial hardships and then they are unable to overcome that hurdle to get it back. Of course, we all know that in our state, you pretty much have to have a car to have a job.”

In the 80’s and 90’s lawmakers got tough with people who couldn’t pay their fines and gave clerks little leeway in collecting them.

“Statutes don’t allow us to change what the judge has assessed as a fine,” said Pinellas County Clerk of Courts Ken Burke.

“If you are on a payment plan and don’t make that payment, you lose your license,” said State Senator Doug Broxson.

Senator Broxson is pushing the clerks to find a way to keep people driving and working, so people can pay what they owe.

“All we are saying is we want them to have the flexibility to sit down with these folks, say what can you afford? Be realistic. Start a payment plan. And maybe revisit it in a year and see if you can pay more,” said Broxson.

The Clerks have told lawmakers they are still working on a plan, but a final proposal won’t come anytime soon.

“It’s not ready for this year, but perhaps next year,” said Pasco County Clerk of Courts Nikki Alvarez-Sowles.

But if real change is a year or more away, thousands of drivers will keep digging a deeper financial hole for themselves, making it all that much harder to find a way back to driving legally.

At any given time, there can be two million or more people with suspended licenses in Florida, with many of them still driving out of necessity.

There is no requirement in state law requiring apartment complexes to conduct background checks on potential employees, but following the September killing of a 19-year-old college student in Central Florida, her parents and a group of bipartisan lawmakers have filed legislation to make background decks mandatory.

19-year-old Miya Marcano was killed in her own apartment by an infatuated 27-year-old maintenance employee who had access to a master key.

“She’s not coming back home and this was very preventable,” said Miya’s mother Yma Scarbriel.

Miya’s mother and father were in the Capitol supporting legislation named for their daughter Wednesday.

“Everyone deserves to feel safe in their homes. Miya’s Law will help make that a reality,” said State Senator Linda Stewart.

The four-page bill would require thorough criminal and Sex offender background checks for every employee at an apartment complex.

“What is important now is that no other family has to deal with the grief that our family has had to deal with,” said Miya’s father Marlon Marcano.

Amanda White with the Florida Apartment Association said everything in the bill is already best practices, although not mandatory.

“The passage of this legislation would just ensure consistent application of those best practices across the state,” said White.

But those not complying if the bill becomes law could lose their right to rent.

“From there is they don’t get it done in 30 days, they may get a fine. And if they don’t get it done the next time they come by to check on them, they could have their license taken away, so there is a follow up to this,” said Stewart.

The 27-year-old worker committed suicide days after the murder.

“Justice has not been served,” said Scarbriel.

Lawmakers come back to the Capitol for their annual session on January 11th.

A hearing on the bill is promised during the first week.

In addition to requiring background checks, the legislation also increases the amount of notice a complex must give to a resident before entering the apartment from twelve to twenty-four hours.

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Democratic lawmakers are seeking legislation that would give the Department of Agriculture more authority over farming operations that do not follow best management practices.

Violations are supposed to be turned over to the Dept of Environmental Protection, but Fried said no referrals were made in the decade before she took office.

She has since sent 6,600 violations to DEP, but she argues the Department of Agriculture, not DEP, should have enforcement authority.

“And if we have found that somebody has violated and going against the BMP program, what should have happened is taking those producers and sending them over to Environmental Protection for enforcement. Unfortunately, prior to my administration, no companies and producers were ever sent over to DEP. We have since reported that sixty six hundred under my administration has been doing so. What this would do is instead of sending this over to DEP, we in-house it. That way, we are the checks an balances inside, because there is a disconnect,” said Fried.

Fried is also proposing major climate change initiatives, including the increased use of solar.

Fried is a candidate for the 2022 democratic nomination for Governor.

Legislation filed at the State Capitol would increase the amount of training doctors would be required to have each year to prescribe medical marijuana, double the amount of time a patient card is valid from one to two years, regulate an intoxicating CBD strain not currently illegal and set rules for testing of crops.

Sponsor Representative Andrew Learned argues patients win if the bill passes.

“Under the bill there is significant cost savings to patients, including two-year medical marijuana license cards, an eight month doctor appointment that will cut the cost of participation in the medical marijuana program by over 60 percent,” said Learned.

The bill also prohibits doctors from having an ownership in marijuana testing facilities.

As the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a contentious Mississippi abortion law bans abortions after 15 weeks, Florida lawmakers are responding by filing a bill turning another contentious abortion law upside down.

It’s operates in a similar way to Texas’ controversial abortion law, which allows citizens to sue others if they provide or help facilitate an abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

Sponsor Ben Diamond said his legislation would allow anyone who has had their right to privacy interfered with to sue for damages.

“All people have the right to have children, the right not to have children, and the right to raise their children in a safe an healthy environment. Floridians should have the right to make these choices privately, without the interference of politicians, and certainly without the interference of their neighbors, their coworkers or some person they’ve never met,” said Diamond.

Florida has a unique right of privacy clause in the state constitution that is stronger than protections in the US Constitution.

So even if the nation’s high court overturns Roe v Wade, its impact on the state could be minimal.

New York City instituted a new mask mandate Tuesday as the stock market was down over renewed COVID fears.

In Florida, state lawmakers took a step to extend liability protections to health care workers incase the pandemic doesn’t wain soon.

Derell Butler has spent the last 15 years working as a certified nursing assistant.

The last year and a half have been the toughest.

“It’s been very hard. It’s been very hard. Especially seeing our loved ones pass away inside a nursing home facility,” said Butler.

Legislation protecting health care workers like Derell and his employer from COVID-related lawsuits is set to expire at the end of March.

Lawmakers want to add another 14 months of protections.

“So, as our front line workers are out there doing God’s work and protecting us, we just want to make sure they aren’t out there looking over their shoulders, doing everything they can during an uncertain global pandemic,” said Senate sponsor Danny Burgess.

Under the legislation, a health care facility would have to been grossly negligent or engaged in intentional misconduct to be sued.

A patient would also have to specifically pinpoint where and when a infection occurred.

Trial lawyers argued against the extension.

“This disincentivizes heath care providers from doing the things are necessary to help us end this pandemic,” said Stephen Cain with the Florida Justice Association.

But nursing home attorneys testified that even with the protections in place, they are in court everyday.

“There was a stop in the number and volume of the lawsuits coming in, but there still is active litigation,” said attorney Robin Khanal.

The sponsor told us the legislation is not about fears that the pandemic is getting new legs, but a fact that lawsuits live on.

Democrats voted no.

“It protects bad actors and lumps them into the same category of those who who are working hard to provide for our loved ones,” said State Senator Darryl Rouson.

Lawmakers end their session March 11.

If the bill gets bottled up in last minute horse trading, the Governor would have just a little over two weeks to sign it before the current protections expire.

The brother of a woman who died with her husband in the Surfside Condo collapse in June was at the state Capitol Tuesday arguing against a bill he believes will cost lives.

The legislation would reduce the amount of time someone has to discover and sue a contractor for construction defects, such as not following the building code, from ten years to just four.

Martin Langesfeld knows the bill won’t bring his sister back, but it could save others.

“Developers need to be held accountable for what happens. The opposite is happening. The negligence will continue to go forward and this is why so many innocent people died. Lowering the years to four years is unheard of. You do not see building defects until five, ten years. We saw it in Surfside 40 years. Sometimes you never see the defects,” said Langesfeld.

Even Republicans who voted for the legislation said it needs more work before they can vote for it again.

The sponsor promised changes before the next committee stop.

The once a decade redrawing of the states congressional and legislative boundaries is heating up in the state Capitol. Today, House staff released the chambers first drafts, while a Senate committee fine tuned that chambers proposals. and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, at least one of the House maps is raising questions of fairness.

Ten yeas ago, new standards approved by voters aimed at making the process of drawing new political boundaries less political were in place for the first time.

Matt Isbell is an independent data analyst and says those standards weren’t always followed.

“They were secretly drawing stuff behind the scenes” says Isbell.

Fast forward to today.  Adding fuel to the debate is that Florida gets one additional member of congress.

“You are recognized for a walk thought of the staff prepared plans” said Senate Congressional redistricting chair Jennifer Bradley.

So far all of the maps have been drawn by staff with no public input. 

“They are telling us that they’ve done the work, but they are not sharing the analysis” says Florida League of Women Voters President Cecelia Scoon.

That worries the League of Women Voters, which originally passed the fair districts amendments.

“So if you want to understand what they’ve done, we have to follow their pathway, and they are just expecting us to trust them, and that’s not how government should work” Scoon told us.

After a Monday meeting, Democrat Linda Stewart says unlike a decade ago, politicians don’t appear to be trying to pick their voters instead of the other way around.

”What I’ve seen is not political.”

Q:”What does that bode for the future?”

“I think it means we won’t have a lawsuit.”

Two congressional maps dropped by the House today, are raising eyebrows.

Donald Trump won 16 of the states 27 congressional districts in 2020. Analyst Isbell 

says Trump would have won 17 districts under the first House released map, and more under the second.

“This second House Congressional plan has Trump at eighteen districts and Biden ten, so that’s much more aggressive than the other plans” says Isbell.

The House and Senate will each re-draw their own districts, but in the end, both must agree on the new congressional map.

After lawsuits following the 2012 redistricting, courts redrew both the Senate and Congressional maps, which took several years of litigation.

The co leader of the House Democrats in the state Capitol today said new legislation passed in the special session, eliminating vaccine and mask mandates could slow the state response to the new Omicron strain of Covid. But as the same time, Rep. Evan Jenne cautioned the impact of the new strain is unknown here in Florida

“One of the things it will do is give us concrete shows  moving forward when it comes to public health emergencies.  So, unfortunately I believe it will have a bit of a detrimental effect, but look, lets not jump to conclusions here” says Jenne.  

The majority of Democrats voted against ending mask and vaccine mandates. The legislation was signed by the Governor the day after the special session ended.

A Federal Judge has thrown out the state’s gambling deal with the Seminole Indians.

The compact signed last April included sports betting, which is what undid the agreement, because it wasn’t already legal in Florida.

The 25-page opinion was strongly worded.

Under the compact signed this past April, sports bets could be placed on a phone from anywhere and deemed legal as long as the servers were on tribal lands.

The court wrote that it “cannot accept that fiction”.

“You know, elections have consequences,” said John Sowinski, founder of No Casinos Inc.

Sowinski, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said the so called ‘hub and spoke’ design was a deception.

“And in 2018 Florida voters went to the polls and by a margin of almost 72 percent locked the key on more gambling in our state and kept it in their own hands,” said Sowninski.

In a one sentence statement, the Seminole Tribe said it was reviewing the judge’s order and carefully considering its next step.

The Governor, speaking in Broward early in the day had not yet been briefed when asked by a reporter.

He expects an appeal.

“We also knew when you do hub and spoke, it was unsettled legal issue,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.

While the compact contains severability language that would have kept other provisions of the compact alive, the judge noted the Department of Interior didn’t ask for it, so she killed the whole deal.

“The problem is the Biden administration didn’t tell the judge that, so the judge said if you’re not going to ask me to make it severable, then I’m not. And Joe Biden owns that,” said State Representative Randy Fine.

In a later statement, the Governor’s office called the ruling ‘perplexing’ and added, “It is unclear what if any immediate impact the ruling has in Florida”.

And since neither the state nor the tribe are parties to the suit, it is unclear who would appeal

The judge ordered the Seminole Tribe to operate under the previous 2010 compact, which the state had violated by allowing parimutuels to operate so called designated player games.

The tribe stopped paying the state $350 million a year two years ago because of the violation.

Governor Ron DeSantis made stops at two convenience chains Monday to announce plans to lower gas prices by suspending collection of the state’s 26.5 cent-a-gallon tax.

State lawmakers won’t be able to act before consumers see an automatic increase of eight-tenths of a cent on January first.

Florida last cut the gas tax by eight cents a gallon, just for the month of August in 2004.

“I propose we lower the state gas tax by ten cents,” said then-State Representative Bob Henrique in March of 2004.

Henrique, now Hillsborough’s Property Appraiser, pushed the idea of a gas tax holiday.

“It’s costing me another $25 a week,” said Financial Consultant Doc Viker.

But at stops in Daytona and then Jacksonville, Governor Ron DeSantis announced plans to suspend the tax’s collection for up to six months.

“This will be many months and this will be over a billion dollars. So that will be real, meaningful relief for people,” said DeSantis.

The 2004 cut saw some hoarding gas, which hurt supply.

Some companies didn’t comply so the state set up consumer hotlines for complaints.

Florida’s 26.5 cent gas tax will automatically adjust for inflation, rising to 27.3 cents January first.

Two top Democrats competing to run against DeSantis last week called on him to stop the January increase.

Democratic State Rep. Anna Eskamani said despite the politics at play, it’s a good idea.

“It’s a worthy cut to discuss because it’s regressive and so it’s going to benefit everyday people,” said Eskamani.

And pool contractor Steven Gilmore told us if the tax goes down, he can start saving again.

“It would be good for me. I don’t know if it’ll be good for the budget,” said Gilmore.

The state does have billions in reserves and gas tax collections were up by half a billion last year over what was expected, so money isn’t an issue.

The cuts could come early next year and must be approved first by state lawmakers.

They begin their annual session January 11th.

Florida lawmakers are expected to end their five day special session Wednesday afternoon after just three days.

With a GOP majority solidly in charge, only one bill creating a public records exemption was ever in doubt because public records exemptions require a two thirds vote.

House Bill 3 B removes from public records the names of employees who complain to the Attorney General about their employer’s vaccine requirements.

Representative Joe Geller asked his fellow Democrats to vote no.

“It takes a two-thirds vote,” said Geller.

Which is more votes than the GOP controls.

Polk County’s Colleen Burton told House members without the exemption medical records could become public.

“They will be able to put it on Facebook, Twitter,” said Representative Burton.

The day began with an uncertain vote count.

Over the three hours before the bill came up, neither House Speaker Chris Sprowls or his top three lieutenants were on the House floor.

“I don’t like most of this bill,” said Democratic State Representative Michael Grieco.

Before the vote, Grieco said he would vote yes.

“There is one issue that’s there that I know would be important to my constituents, and that’s our ability to protect the health information of employees,” said Grieco.

The vote sheet shows eight other Democrats joined Grieco to support the bill.

As the session broke, we spoke with one of the people who had been in the back room of the chamber for three hours.

We how much did was given up to get the Democratic votes and were told ‘You’ll have to take that up with someone higher up’.

So we went to the top, asking House Speaker Chris Sprowls about the horse trading.

“No cost, unless cost is good policy. The public records bill, without that bill there would have been people private, religious, medical information that would be posted on Facebook potentially if there was a public records request,” said Sprowls.

Horse trading is as old as politics and a state with a $100 billion budget can trade a lot of horses.

The public records exemption automatically ends on October 2, 2023.