To hear Florida politicians talk about a national catastrophe fund,
you'd think it was the elusive silver bullet to kill high home insurance
rates.
But the concept continues to run into a walls elsewhere -- including
from hurricane-struck states.
Louisiana state Rep. Shirley Bowler tells the trade publication
"National Underwriter" that she's against a national catastrophe fund
because expanding the federal role in insurance undercuts state
regulation of the same. She doesn't like, either, what Florida did by
doubling the size of its own catastrophe fund, calling that move the
"pinnacle of failure."
A delegation of Louisiana lawmakers descended on Tallahassee shortly
after the January special session, to get the lay of the land before
taking on the insurance industry in their own session starting next month.
Florida's Sen. Steve Geller, a former president of the National
Conference of Insurance Legislators, is increasingly frustrated in his
failure to convince fellow lawmakers of the beauty of a nationwide
catastrophe fund. After four years of study, NCOIL has decided to ....
give it more study.
Meanwhile, insurance companies themselves are split on the wisdom of
a national program to insure hurricane risks. Allstate has long been a
major proponent of such a fund.
But the American Insurance Association says in advance of today's
national meeting of state insurance regulators that government should
stay out of the insurance business ... that the industry is coping with
catastrophic losses just fine.

State Farm announces a record $5.3 billion in net income for 2006, triggering a $1 billion dividend to the mutual auto insurance policyholders in 46 states. A little over $25 million will come back to Florida car customers, the mutual announces.
Chief Executive Officer Ed Rust received $11.66 million in compensation for the hurricane-free year, double the size of his 2005 paycheck.
Much of that income comes from State Farm's property insurance lines – including its pup, State Farm Florida. Combined, they reported a pretax profit of $6 billion for 2006, contrasted with $3.5 billion in 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina.

The Florida Legislature is prepared to give Gov. Charlie Crist his wish, making so-called anti-murder legislation its first official act.
The Senate wasted no time in taking up the bill Tuesday after finishing a morning of opening day pomp and circumstance. It arrives on the House floor for debate and passage on Thursday.
Democrats could use rules and procedure to slow up Crist's speeding train by at least a day, if they wanted.
Right now, House Minority Leader Dan Gelber doesn't want.
"We're willing to roll over this bill," Gelber told the House rules committee on Tuesday "so we don't take another day of session if we don't need it."
Translated, that means Gelber is willing to waive rules, allow the House to pass Crist's anti-murder bill on Thursday, and head home for a three-day weekend.
And it means Crist could have his anti-murder bill (almost) signed, sealed and delivered the first week of session.

He promises to cut class sizes and fund stem cell research and higher teacher pay.
He quotes Robert Kennedy and talks like Al Gore.
He's Florida's Republican Governor.
"It's fabulous," said CFO Alex Sink, Florida's lone Democrat in an otherwise GOP-controlled state government leadership. "Isn't it wonderful to have a governor whose sounding Democratic things?"
She noted that Crist's State of the State Address seemed best received from the Democrats who are assigned seats in the rear.
"I thought it was interesting that sitting in the well, the loudest applause was coming from the back two rows," she said.
Gov. Charlie Crist said he isn't bothered by such praise from left field.
"What concerns me is working hard for all of the people in the state," Crist said. "I have no desire to be partisan."

As Gov. Charlie Crist meets the Florida Legislature
face-to-face today, his Democratic shadow, CFO Alex Sink, is close at hand.
Sink will attend today's State of the State address in the House chamber. She already is keeping a public profile, attending Monday's House Republican caucus, and milling about this morning with lobbyists outside the House and Senate chambers.
One other Cabinet member is absent from today's show. Attorney General Bill McCollum is in Washington today for the spring meeting of the National Attorneys General.

Just as Jeb Bush was leaving office, some of his biggest fans sought to leave behind a legacy: The Jeb Bush Mitigation Center for Excellence.
That was the title of a new state-created non-profit to be housed under the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, which wound up running Florida's $250 million home inspection and hardening grant program. Draft legislation was floated to Gov. Charlie Crist's offices early in his adminstration.
"It was a love note," said FLASH director Leslie Chapman-Henderson, who said she came up with the idea of naming the state's structure-strengthening efforts after the governor who gave the program its start.
Bush, who has gone on to rally conservatives and take on speaking engagements, doesn't have much to say about the attempted namesake.
"Don't know anything about it" he e-mailed in reply.

The job of Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty continues to hang in limbo.
Gov. Charlie Crist to date has said he's not ready to declare whether he wants to keep the insurance commissioner he inherited from Jeb Bush.
CFO Alex Sink also is keeping McCarty on the fence.
"I'm waiting for the governor to decide he is ready to take up the issue," Sink said Monday.
The insurance commissioner is hired by the four-member Financial Services Commission, a function of the Florida Cabinet, on which both Sink and Crist sit.
McCarty has received endorsements from an unusually broad spectrum, from consumer advocacy groups to business lobbyist Jon Shebel, the former Associated Industries of Florida president who now runs its workers compensation business.