BROWARD POLITICS BLOG: Atwater–Citizens insurance rates will rise in 2010
Jan 22, 2009
Broward Politics Blog–January 22, 2009
Posted by Josh Hafenbrack at 12:33 PM
Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said today legislators will let the rate freeze for homeowners with policies under state-run Citizens Property Insurance expire – meaning homeowners will see higher bills starting in 2010.
Atwater said he’d like legislators to set up a gradual process – perhaps 10 percent increases per year or less – to get Citizens rates back to economically sound levels. Legislators have frozen Citizens rates for two years, making the premiums that many homeowners pay artificially low.
“We will have to allow Citizens rates to begin to move closer to market-driven rates,” Atwater told a gathering of state reporters and editors organized by the Associated Press. “I will do so carefully and thoughtfully, so there’s not an extraordinary knee-jerk that falls upon the citizens of Florida that are so dependent on Citizens insurance.”