Has there ever been a governor term in FL w/o being hit with a hurricane? How is this not top 3 priorities for your state as a governor?
Hurricanes and property insurance are nowhere near the top 3 of DeSantis' list. The puny $11 Billion Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) is not going to help all that much with the massive $65 Billion property damage bill. This marks pretty much the complete collapse of the insurance industry in Florida and DeSantis will be begging the Feds for the largest bailout in history. Hurricane Ian could cause $65 billion in damage The best-case-scenario for damage is $55 billion, a data firm said. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/hurricane-ians-damage-reach-65-billion/story?id=90693223
Remember how Trump used a sharpie to re-draw the path of a hurricane. It's sort of like that but with DeSantis. Democratic foe nails Ron DeSantis for the lie that Lee County 'wasn't even in the cone' of Hurricane Ian's path https://www.rawstory.com/ron-desantis-hurricane-daniel-uhlfelder/
Let's watch the authoritarian backpedal and redirect. First DeSantis stated the decision to evacuate was strictly under local control -- and everyone outlined how he has regularly overruled counties & cities on Covid rules and other decisions. Then he switched to the timing and uncertainty in the track of the storm -- including the fabrication that Lee County was never in the cone of the path for the storm which he was quickly called out for. Now DeSantis' contortions continue as he works to re-invent his narrative every few hours. Twisting and spinning with the wind... DeSantis defends timing of Ian evacuations in hard-hit Lee County https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...ng-of-ian-evacuations-in-hard-hit-lee-county/
DeSantis is way too busy with his new immigrant delivery service to work on fixing Florida's pesky property insurance market, but what's the worst that can happen? What happened while Ron DeSantis was fighting the culture wars https://popular.info/p/what-happened-while-ron-desantis Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has had a busy year. He has enacted legislation prohibiting teachers from acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ people. He has banned private businesses from conducting trainings about racial bias. And he has flown dozens of migrants from San Antonio, Texas to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, under false pretenses. But while DeSantis was fighting the culture wars and positioning himself for a future presidential run, he has failed to meaningfully address one of the state's biggest problems: its dysfunctional and collapsing property insurance market. Florida's property insurance system was in crisis even though the state had not been struck by a major hurricane since 2018. Then Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida's west coast, killing at least 74 people and inflicting tens of billions of dollars in property damage. Things are about to get much worse. Florida property faces catastrophic risks from weather events that worsen each year due to climate change. For years, many of the nation's major insurers have wanted little to do with covering property in Florida. Currently, State Farm covers 8% of Florida’s home insurance market, but "no other major national insurer has more than 4%." That leaves Floridians reliant on thinly-capitalized local insurers with very high rates. Floridians pay an average of "$4,231 a year per [property insurance] policy, compared to a US average of $1,544." Premiums have increased as much as 30% per year. Nevertheless, these companies are having a hard time surviving. In the last five years, six Florida insurance companies have gone out of business "without responding to a hurricane, and four more are in the process of liquidation." The collapsing market has left many Floridians reliant on the Citizens Property Insurance Corp., a state-run agency that is supposed to be the "insurer of last resort." It now provides property insurance for more than 1 million Floridians. But Citizens has limited resources. It currently has $13.5 billion available to pay out claims — a pool of money that will be depleted, if not exhausted, by Ian. If Citizens runs out of money, Florida law "allows [Citizens] to assess non-customers to pay out claims." This assessment, known as a "hurricane tax," would result in increased costs for Floridians that don't even own homes but carry auto, renters, or other forms of insurance. Florida State Senator Jeff Brandes (R) warns that Floridians could "see rate hikes of up to 40% next year as a result of Ian." DeSantis' giveaway to the insurance industry In May, DeSantis called a special session, purportedly to address the property insurance crisis. The session resulted in lowering the threshold for the industry to access taxpayer-financed reinsurance by $2 billion. This publicly-financed reinsurance, known as the Cat Fund, offers reinsurance for about one-third of the price of reinsurance on the private market. (The Cat Fund can offer lower prices because it is exempt from taxes and doesn't have to worry about turning a profit.) The Cat Fund helps companies affordably cover catastrophic losses, avoid insolvency, and potentially lower premiums. While providing more access to affordable reinsurance could help stabilize the market, the scope of the program was much smaller than consumer advocates supported. Moreover, the law provided "no guarantees" that the savings created by the taxpayer-financed reinsurance program would be passed to consumers. Advocates warned it was "an industry bail-out that won’t result in savings to consumers." And that's exactly what happened. Despite the reinsurance fund, many insurers continued to apply for double-digit rate increases. "Florida insurance firms, not homeowners, reap the benefit of $2 billion taxpayer-financed fund," the Orlando Sentinel reported on August 1. Follow the State Farm money Why didn't DeSantis take more robust action in May to shore up the property insurance market? Strengthening the public reinsurance fund was opposed by "large insurance companies that can buy reinsurance from their own subsidiaries and wouldn't benefit from the proposed reforms." That opposition was reportedly led by State Farm, the nation's largest insurer. State Farm is also a major donor to and fundraiser for DeSantis. On August 1, 2022, DeSantis collected "nearly 200 separate checks from insurance agents or their firms," totaling about $150,000. The effort, according to Politico, was "coordinated by State Farm." DeSantis met with the State Farm agent who spearheaded the effort and received the checks personally. Overall, DeSantis has received at least $700,000 from the insurance industry this cycle. State Farm also partially owns RenaissanceRe, a private reinsurance company. The private reinsurance industry opposes strengthening Florida's public reinsurance fund because it cuts into their profits. Another way to stabilize the insurance market is to fortify and expand Citizens Property Insurance Corp.and allow more Floridians to access its coverage. But this is opposed by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which represents State Farm and other major insurers. Instead, the Florida Chamber of Commerce is advocating for the legislature to raise Citizens' rates, which would also allow private insurance to jack up prices. For more in-depth coverage of Florida property insurance, check out Seeking Rents, a newsletter by Florida investigative reporter Jason Garcia. The long-term cost of climate change denial Florida's property insurance market could be strengthened in the short term. But, ultimately, the intensifying crisis is inextricably linked to climate change. Unless global warming is curtailed, it will be impossible to manage the risks to Floridians and their property. DeSantis has made some investments to improve Florida's resilience in the face of rising sea levels and stronger storms, including a $150 million fund to provide grants to homeowners for hurricane retrofitting. But DeSantis has shown no willingness to address the root of the problem and has sought to block others in the state from addressing climate change. For example, last year, DeSantis signed a bill that blocked Florida cities and towns from transitioning to 100% clean energy. DeSantis also successfully pushed a resolution to prohibit Florida's pension fund from considering the impacts of climate change in its investment decisions. In December 2021, DeSantis was asked by a reporter what he was going to do to address climate change. "What I’ve found is, people when they start talking about things like global warming, they typically use that as a pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things that they would want to do anyways," DeSantis said. "We’re not doing any left-wing stuff."
Everyone and their brother are calling out DeSantis out on his bullshiat... Florida newsman uses maps to debunk Ron DeSantis claim Ft. Meyers was 'never' in hurricane's path https://www.rawstory.com/ron-desantis-lee-county-scandal/
Remember DeSantis only allows interviews with news outlets that align with his beliefs. DeSantis Gives Interview To Jan. 6 Attendee Wearing ‘Three Percenters’ Militia Insignia DeSantis spent four minutes talking to a broadcaster who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, complaining about the coverage of ‘regime media.’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/desantis-three-percenters-interview_n_633ef000e4b08e0e60764ee0 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a four-minute interview to a right-wing broadcaster wearing the insignia of the “Three Percenters” militia group and who on Jan. 6, 2021, was among the mob assaulting the Capitol as part of Donald Trump’s coup attempt. “You have national, regime media, that they wanted to see Tampa [get struck by Hurricane Ian], because they thought that would be worse for Florida,” DeSantis said in response to a question of whether there would be any “accountability” for news outlets for how they have covered the storm. Neither DeSantis’ governor’s office nor his campaign responded to HuffPost queries about why he would agree to an interview with someone openly wearing the domestic terror movement’s logo on his sleeve. But Christina Pushaw, a campaign spokesperson, praised the interviewer, Brendon Leslie, in a social media post Wednesday evening. “Formerly relevant, powerful establishment lib media in Florida are jealous of him and his team. The smears won’t work,” she wrote. Leslie, 29, was a broadcast journalist at one of the Fort Myers television stations before quitting to form a pro-Trump website, “Florida’s Voice,” which now also supports DeSantis. He has previously interviewed DeSantis multiple times, but it is unclear whether he ever was wearing the militia group markings prior to Tuesday, when he spoke with the governor after he had finished a news conference in Cape Coral. He denied being a member of the loosely organized militia group, and said he purchased the T-shirt from a North Carolina online store because “The shirt is really cool and badass and I don’t care what you or any liberal journalist thinks.” The store acknowledged that the logo on the sleeve ― 13 black stars surrounding the Roman numeral three and the year 1776 ― was a Three Percenters symbol but told HuffPost that the same shirt, which features an AR-15 rifle with the Florida flag stylized into the ammunition clip was available in black without the militia logo. “Three Percenters believe that, just as a small revolutionary vanguard overthrew the tyrannical British rule in America, a dedicated group of modern patriots could rid the United States of today’s alleged tyranny,” according to the Anti-Defamation League website. The Three Percenters are among the domestic terror groups whose members took part in the former president’s attempt to remain in power, using violence and the threat of violence, despite losing the November 2020 election. Several Three Percenters have been arrested and charged with trying to obstruct an official proceeding, including Guy Reffitt, a recruiter for the Texas Three Percenters who received a seven-year prison sentence in August, one of the longest to date of any of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. “There were Three Percenter flags waving over the insurrection as people were charging into the Capitol,” said Alex Friedfeld, an investigative researcher with the ADL’s Center on Extremism. DeSantis’ governor’s office also would not explain what he meant by the phrase “regime” media, but the term is frequently used by followers of the former president to suggest that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected. Leslie attended Trump’s pre-insurrection rally on Jan. 6 near the White House along with other Trump supporters who traveled there by bus and then marched on the Capitol at Trump’s request. He admitted in an interview with a Fort Myers TV station the day after Trump’s coup attempt that he entered the building to “occupy” the Capitol but did not participate in any violence. In a video Leslie posted to Facebook, he is seen back outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and urging others, whom he referred to as “our people,” not to attack police officers or damage the building. He also acknowledged that he had entered the Capitol illegally, telling others that the Capitol and Washington, D.C., police were only “doing their job” by keeping Trump supporters out. “They have to. We’re trespassing,” he said on the video. “It’s one thing to occupy and it’s another thing to attack… We’re doing this wrong. This is doing wrong.”
DeSantis is simply using the hurricane disaster to push his political narrative while doing nothing to help the residents of Florida. DeSantis’ white go-go boots aren’t the problem. It’s his relentless politicking amid Ian’s rubble https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article266787971.html