Gov. Charlie Crist again is coaxing the Legislature to push Florida's
insurance industry for lower rates.
This time, it is by forcing them to compete with the state.
Crist called key lawmakers last week, including Senate Banking and
Insurance Chairman Bill Posey. The goveronor wants a hearing on Sen.
Rudy Garcia's bill to completely open the doors to Citizens Property
Insurance, allowing Floridians to get coverage from the state without
any of the current price restrictions.
Posey said he agreed to take up the bill.
Allowing Citizens to compete with the private market is central to
Crist's efforts to force a more competitive insurance market.
"Without that we would still be subject to the strong arm tactics of
some in the insurance industry, who would say and have said in the past,
if you don't like what we do, we're going to leave the state," Crist
said Tuesday. "Well we don't have to subject ourselves, more importantly
our consumers to that kind of attitude anymore."
Since the special session in January, Florida's insurance companies
have been sounding the alarm if Citizens were to be allowed to grow even
more, and the kind of assessments state residents would face to bail out
the company from a major hurricane. The state-run insurer is already
Florida's largest private property insurer.

Gov. Charlie Crist thinks he is close to getting agreement from at
least two Cabinet officers on automatic restoration of civil rights, for
at least some felons. "Everybody deserves a second chance," Crist insists.
Early on, both CFO Alex Sink and Agriculture Commissioner Charles
Bronson said they agreed in concept to allowing Floridians to reclaim
their right to vote, hold certain jobs, and other privileges. Both
insist that felons first complete the terms of their criminal
punishment, and that some offenders such as those who commit violent
crimes be excluded.
That left only the writing of a list of who would and who wouldn't be
eligible.
Crist said he hopes negotiations will be complete by Thursday's
meeting of the Florida Board of Executive Clemency.
The American Civil Liberties Union objects that requiring felons to
first pay back court-ordered restitution is an unfair obstacle to the
poor. Crist responds that there is always room for personal appeal --
through the clemency process.
"I want to do the doable," said Crist, who has decided the path of
least resistance is through the clemency board. "I'm pushing as hard as
I can to get as much as I can, but there's a point beyond which I cannot
go."