A 'Cuban invasion' in Tallahassee

Three busloads of frustrated South Florida residents left Hialeah at 4 a.m. on Wednesday to join a growing chorus of taxpayers demanding lower insurance rates -- and property tax relief.Their early afternoon arrival at the Capitol caused quite a scene.

Led by Miami City Commissioner Joe Sanchez and radio talk show host Tomas Regalado, they filled the big basement-level Cabinet room to overflowing. Nearly 200 strong, they waved signs and copies of their tax bills in the faces of politicians and cameraman.

"This was the first Cuban invasion of Tallahassee," Regalado joked.

"It's overwhelming. The people," Gov. Charlie Crist told the group. "That's what happens when the will of the people is listened to."

Sen. Rudy Garcia, R-Hialeah, said it was the largest Tallahassee showing of grass-roots activism by people from Miami-Dade that he could remember, and he could not resist comparing the response to the insurance mess by two governors.

"It's taken Charlie Crist a few weeks to do something that Gov. Jeb Bush couldn't do in eight years," Garcia said.

Times photos: Scott Keeler

Comments

[politicalspectator]

Love Cubans! Especially with plenty of pickles and roast pork and the bread is nice and crusty...oh, never mind.

Garcia is right. Crist changed agency heads faster than anyone would have thought possible!

Keep sucking up Rudy. You need all the help you can get after you went all out for Gallagher.

Sen. Garcia:

I seem to remember that last session you were 100% behind the Pro-Insurance-Industry Legislation (SB 1980), and you cheered it on in your committee, talked about how great it was....funny how memories fade...

CHarlie's 30+ years of being an experience apartment renter has really put him in a position to lead on this crisis.

For all the glowing comments we hear coming from the capital, nothing has happened yet. Has anybody ever heard of "failed expectations?"
And what if the great refund or rollback or rate cut turns out to be something like $20 per property owner? Will they try to spin that as a win? I'm sure they will, but will it fly?

[terminator]

3:42
Ditto.
I seem to remember that Garcia chaired the Senate committee that backed the $715 million rebate to the insurance industry.

Rudy G. you're a phony!

[Omega83]

Just like Fidel Castro, the Florida House today just took one big step towards Communism.

Marco Rubio = Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez

Wipe the brown off your nose, Rudy! Charlie hasn't DONE anything yet. Just talked a lot. Talk is cheap.

4:41 believes that it is o.k. for the people of Florida to be raped by the insurance industry. Bravo to the Speaker for taking a stand and protecting Floridians. Lets hope the Senate and the Governor care as much about the people of Florida as the Speaker does.

the republicans chant drone-like "the market, the market, blessed be the market" until one day a catastrophe bites them in the classified ads, subjecting us to their tortured tales of woe and need for government largesse and aid.

[Omega83]

7:00

I'd rather be raped by insurance than raped by government...Not only are we ALL going to pay Citizens assessments (evenlow income renters, via pass throughs and likely tax increases elswhere), but if the Big One hits, our budget can be reduced to the neighborhood of Mississippi.

The House bills "force" insurers to end pup companies and allow Citizens to compete with the private market.

Since when does government enter the insurance business? The House bills will only ensure companies will leave Florida even faster, forcing us all to rely on state-subsidized insurance...a recipe for disaster if the day comes when Florida taxpayers will ahve to pay out all claims,

"the market, the market, blessed be the holy market, the market, the market..."

some insurer somewhere will write a policy for anything for a price...when they must compete with a state government that now has the authoirty to undercut them on prices, don't be surprised when they all leave and we'll all have no option but Citizens...

and when we have only one option, we'll turn to it to pay out our claims...until there is nothing left to pay those claims anymore...

Everyone say it together, "It is not the role of government to provide me with insurance. Insurance is a service provided by markets and is not an entitlement that I deserve."

10:14

preach it!

http://www.bondbuyer.com/$nocookies$/article.html?id=200701112BDHHENO

10:14 what you forget is that government REQUIRES you to have insurance....insurance is not a free market economy...the principles of supply and demand do not apply to a market forced upon the citizens by government...insurance is a regulated industry like utilities.

No one has shown more leadership on this issue than the Governor. It has been his insistence that meaningful reform passed that has caused a major shift in thinking in the House and Senate.

7:00 surely you are joking. If anyone has taken "a stand" it has been Charlie Crist. The "People's Governor" is showing great leadership.

The government does not force you to have insurance, the bank who holds your mortgage note does.

The government does not force you to have insurance, the bank who holds your mortgage note does.

It depends on the type of insurance. The government forces you to have auto insurance. The government forces you to have Worker's Compensation insurance. To get many licenses the government requires insurance.

why aren't they taking up the "anti-murder" bill during the special session?

are the legislators anti, anti-murder?

Why should inland homeowners subsidize coastal homeowners? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

10:14 says "The government doesn't require you to have property insurance."

On a side note, I love the anti-murder bill, clears up a lot of confusion. See I wasn't sure if murder was okay or not okay, now I know that murder in Florida is wrong.

Next, I'm looking forward to a great debate on the anti-robbery bill. That should be a real barn burner.

[Gene Smith]

6:36

In case you didn't notice, the point where all four of 2004's hurricanes crossed paths was in Polk County. Hardly a coastal area.

You might want to ask the folks in Hardee and DeSoto counties about Hurricane Charlie (no, not the governor) about coastal areas and hurricane damage.

[Reality]

If the government wanted to let me invest my own Social Security, why not allow me to invest my own insurance premiums?

… and please stop calling forced insurance a “service”. Put the damn Kool Aid down. A CAT Fund is the way to go with this.

6:36...you don't hear the citizens in the coastal region are asking why their tax dollars are sent to the interior counties to pay for roads, schools and other essential needs.

[Reality]

Are we not spreading the cost of the Iraq war across the whole country? Or is that we only give a damn “collectively” when Dubya says we should? Insurance companies enjoyed decades of profit without accountability, and put simply, got caught with their pants down.

The scramble now is to keep the average and apathetic citizen from realizing the levity of the scam. The opposition to the CAT Fund concept is motivated purely by the potential loss in the profit margins, and big business influence on politicians via campaign contributions.

The clear and present solution is to allow private industry to insure up to 60% of 100% loss – understanding the realistic percentage of 100% loss occurrence – and allow a CAT Funding source to cover the remaining 40%.

All of which must be predicated on “Real” value replacement, not speculated value replacement.

Problem solved, everybody’s happy.

[Omega83]

Reality - are you talking about a National CAT fund? Changing the Florida CAT fund? which?

the opposition to a National CAT fund will come from members of Congress in places like North Dakota, Tennesse, etc., who do not want to see their federal tax dollars insure Florida coastal homes, or California moutainside ranches.

However, the states at the most risk are also those most populated and thus with the most Congressional clout.

Now, if you're talking about changes to Florida's CAT fund, you're in an entirely different realm.

[Reality]

Sorry Omega, had to do some actual work…;-)

In reality, and perhaps from a literal stand point… “Catastrophe” is not relegated to a specific location of type. Any given catastrophe in any given location around our country can have national implications and impacts. From hurricanes, to tornadoes, to floods, to earthquakes, to show storms, ect…

Most are seasonal in nature and unpredictable (to a certain extent) in occurrence location. Therefore, from my perspective, we need to look at the issue as an issue that impacts anyone (American) at any given time… and therefore must have a collective solution from a collective body.

Three essential players; Private Industry, State Government and Federal Government… all working for the good of “all”. Catastrophe, the speculation and subsequent exploitation thereof, should not be traded on Wall Street. Their inevitability is a known, they specificity is not. Whether it’s a 40/40/20… 50/25/25… 33.3/33.3/33.4. It really doesn’t matter. Ultimately, the best possible solution can be acquired without a person losing their home or a relative quality of life.

In layman’s terms… stop the bullshit and solve it with a win/win. At present, what holds it up is entities fighting of who wins more.

It took Sen. Garcia 5 minutes to sell out Jeb Bush on Insurance. He carried the water for the insurance industry for 20 years and had the "cojonos" to say that he was kicked off the committee for not supporting the public. Senator Rudy Garcia is a fruad and a fake.