By Charles Dodson, retired Leon Circuit judge
Everyone agrees property insurance in Florida is a huge problem. Insurance companies don’t want to be here because they can’t make money. And they, rightfully so, are in the business to make money. Homeowners either can’t get coverage or it’s extremely expensive.
And our leaders gather year after year looking for a solution to the problem. A solution that doesn’t hurt too bad. One that insurance companies are OK with, and homeowners are OK with.
But it can’t hurt too bad because that’s what our leaders do. Year after year they keep their heads in the sand and look for an easy solution to this problem. And because they have kept their heads in the sand year after year, the problem has gotten bigger and bigger.
The problem is our rapidly changing climate. Our hurricanes, which have been here since well before Florida was a state, have gotten more and more violent. We are now getting categories 4 and 5 far too often. We have built close to our beautiful coast for years and years, throwing caution to the wind, so to speak.
And when those more and more violent storms hit, they cause tremendous damage, for which we look to our insurance companies to pay for. Which means they must charge a lot of money to our property owners.
Insurance companies don’t want to pay that huge amount of money, so they fight many of the claims, because they are in the business to make money. So, the policyholders that bought the insurance must hire lawyers to fight the insurance companies. And those lawyers must get paid, because they too are in the business to make money. It is all very expensive.
Our great state and its leaders should be leading the way on fighting this expensive climate change. Yes, it is a worldwide problem, but Florida and our great country should be leading the way on this. That is what we have always done. But it is difficult, so we kick the can down the road.
Insurance companies should be leading the way on this also. They charge premiums based on risk. The more of these weather extremes we have, the greater the risk.
The Florida citizens who in the long run are going to be most affected by this are our children and grandchildren and our unborn children and grandchildren.
I know our leaders love them. So, suck it up and address this horrible issue that they are going to have to live with if we don’t get to work. That’s what you were elected to do. To lead. And that sometimes means making hard decisions.
It is going to be difficult and expensive to do this. But it’s going to be more difficult and more expensive for our children and grandchildren the longer we wait to get started on it. They don’t have much of a say in this right now. But they are going to be very much affected by this if we don’t. And they should be furious with us if we don’t get to work on this.
Charles Dodson is a retired Leon Circuit judge. This piece was first published in the Tallahassee Democrat.
“The Invading Sea” is the opinion arm of the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a collaborative of news organizations across the state focusing on the threats posed by the warming climate.
