Governor: No Plans to Abolish Citizens Insurance
Apr 27, 2011
The following article was published in the Lakeland Ledger on April 26, 2011:
Governor: No plans to Abolish Citizens Insurance
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he has no plan to abolish Citizens Property Insurance, but backed efforts to reduce the size and scope of the state-backed insurance company.
“Citizens has got to become the insurance of last resort, not the insurance of first resort,” Scott said. “We’ve got to look at everything we can to create an environment where people want to come into our state to sell insurance. And we’ve got to think about the regulations that we have that cause our insurance to cost too much money.”
Scott said he had no secret plan to abolish Citizens, which provides coverage for some 1.3 million Floridians. He was responding to a Sarasota Herald-Tribune report Sunday of insurance lobbyists’ emails showing Scott’s aides had backed a plan to phase out Citizens over four years. Scott said the only plan he has backed is the one outlined in his campaign where he said he pledged to make Citizens the “insurer of last resort.”
Scott’s comments came as a bill (SB 1714) allowing Citizens to raise its rates by as much as 25 percent per year remained stalled in the Senate Budget Committee. Budget Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said he did not know if the committee would take up the bill at a later meeting.
Another major bill stalled in the Senate Budget Committee is aimed at tightening the state’s enforcement of immigration laws.
During his campaign, Scott advocated vigorously for an “Arizona-style” immigration law for Florida. But lawmakers appear unlikely to embrace regulations as far reaching as Arizona’s, such as allowing police to check the immigration status of someone involved in a routine traffic stop.
Scott sidestepped how he would view an immigration bill that was not as tough as Arizona’s.
“If someone is violating our laws we ought to be able to ask them,” Scott said. “We’re not going to have any racial profiling. We’re going to treat people with respect.”
Asked specifically whether he wanted Florida law enforcement officers to able to check the immigration status during a traffic stop, Scott said he supported asking residents whether “they are legal or not” if they are “violating our laws.”
Scott praised lawmakers for reaching a broad agreement on the new state budget, although they so far have shunned the governor’s request for major tax breaks.
Find this articlehere: http://www.theledger.com/article/20110426/NEWS/110429530/1003/NEWS00?p=all&tc=pgall