TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (By News Service of Florida) -- Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed into law a toned-down version of a measure he vetoed last year dealing with efforts to reduce the number of policies in Citizens Property Insurance.
The measure (HB 931), one of 20 bills signed by Scott, requires the state-backed Citizens to provide more information to policyholders when they have been targeted for "takeout" by private firms. For example, Citizens, which has shed nearly 1 million policies over the past three years, would have to provide estimates of comparable coverage in the private market and rates available with Citizens.
"While there are steps that must be done to further reform the takeout process, this legislation is a move in the right direction," Rep. Dwight Dudley, a St. Petersburg Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said in a prepared statement.
Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, also were sponsors in the House, while Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, sponsored the Senate version.
The measure didn't include a proposal that would have required private insurers to agree that initial premiums for former Citizens policyholders wouldn't exceed 10 percent of initial estimates for three years.
The proposal also would have allowed former Citizens customers to return within 36 months at a renewal rate if the private companies failed to comply with certain conditions including the rate cap. A similar hard-cap provision was part of the reason Scott vetoed a Citizens bill last year.
Flores had pushed to include the provision in this year's effort, noting that some former Citizens customers have seen rates increase by 200 percent. However, the House refused to support language that could have again faced Scott's veto.
