TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – July 3, 2008 – Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink announced today that the My Safe Florida Home (MSFH) program will end this weekend, once it meets the Florida Legislature’s goal of approving 400,000 homeowners for free wind inspections. The program will cease to take new applications in the next few days, ending its mission a year ahead of schedule.
 
In 2007, the Florida Legislature directed the MSFH program to provide inspections for at least 400,000 site-built, single-family, residential properties and provide grants to at least 35,000 applicants before June 30, 2009. The first-come, first-serve program averaged over 5,000 new sign-ups per day.
 
“When the Florida Legislature created the My Safe Florida Home program, their intent was to create a culture of mitigation in our state,” says CFO Alex Sink. “Almost half a million homes later, homeowners served by this program are better informed and most are better prepared for the next big storm.”
 
Participating homeowners receive a free wind inspection report, which suggests ways homeowners can harden their homes against storm damage and informs homeowners if they are currently eligible to save money on their wind insurance premiums.  To date, 58 percent of homeowners who received a free wind inspection were eligible for discounts on their wind insurance premiums, with their average savings $219.31. The MSFH program, including local government and non-profits, approved approximately 39,000 homeowners for mitigation grants so far, and has paid 18,787 grants totaling more than $63.8 million.

For more information, visit the program Web site at: http://www.mysafefloridahome.com

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TALLAHASSEE – July 3, 2008 – Florida consumers may get hit with a 2.5 percent hike in their property insurance bills, thanks to a state plan to shore up the fund that helps cover insurance company losses from hurricanes.

Florida is going to spend $224 million now in order to have access to $4 billion the state may need if a massive storm were to hit during the next few months.

State officials approved the plan Wednesday out of fear the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, a fund created 15 years ago, may have trouble borrowing the money it would need to pay insurers after a big storm, or a series of storms. In January 2007, state lawmakers increased the potential size of the fund in an effort to bring down skyrocketing insurance rates.

Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink all voted to spend the money to help the fund, even though both Sink and McCollum said they didn’t like the terms of the deal, which was negotiated with Berkshire Hathaway, the company led by Warren Buffett.

“This is not a good thing in my opinion, but I’m supporting it because it is the only responsible choice at the moment,” said McCollum, who noted that Berkshire Hathaway is not obligated to help the state unless the state fund has to cover losses in excess of $25 billion. Policy owners could pay more because the fund normally passes on its costs to the insurance companies that purchase coverage from the fund. Insurance companies are then usually allowed to pass on those costs to policy owners.

But Crist refused to support the rate hike on Wednesday, even though McCollum and Sink voted yes. And Crist said his office believes that any change in the fund’s premiums requires a unanimous vote, not a simple majority. McCollum’s office agreed to do legal research to find out if Crist’s position was correct.

If Crist is correct, the fund would have to take the money out of its $2 billion operating account, meaning it would have less money to pay claims in the event of a hurricane.

The Miami Herald, Gary Fineout. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.