Pasco Homeowners Bring Outrage, Ideas To Capitol

By BAIRD HELGESON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jan 17, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - Felix and Albine Kofler decided to learn a new language when they got a $4,656 bill from Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

They realized they needed to become fluent in the arcane language of the insurance industry to understand why their premiums rose more than 800 percent in 12 years.

"I don't want to be robbed," Felix Kofler of Port Richey said Tuesday on a chartered bus ride to Tallahassee to protest soaring property insurance rates. "It's not insurance; it's like the mafia. They are cleaning us out."

The Koflers leveraged their newfound insurance knowledge when they joined the group Having Affordable Coverage Florida for its rally on the steps of the Capitol. The group planned Tuesday's rally to coincide with the first day of a special legislative session to deal with the state's property insurance crisis.

Lawmakers are trying to curb skyrocketing rates and keep private insurers from fleeing the state after eight hurricanes pounded Florida in 2004 and 2005.

The two buses from Pasco and Hernando counties arrived at the Capitol about noon, and the group met with members of organizations from across the state united by their concern about soaring property insurance rates. A group of Florida Keys property owners flew in.

More than 100 people rallied with a list of demands, carrying dozens of signs, including one that read: "We elected you not the insurance companies. Work for us." Felix Kofler carried a sign that said, "We the people … demand lower rates."

Members of the groups wore blue armbands to signify the plight of those who haven't settled with insurance companies and live with blue tarps on their roofs. Rally organizers brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, saying that was all they could afford after paying their property insurance bills.

Outrage was easy to come by during the hourlong rally, but the groups also included a detailed list of solutions for the insurance crisis. The recommendations included forbidding private insurers from writing coverage only in low-risk areas, forcing insurers to release the details of confidential computer models used to set rates, and repealing the law that allows insurers to raise rates without state approval.

The group ended the rally chanting, "Lower our rates! Lower our rates!"

After the rally, the groups jammed a Senate Banking and Insurance Committee meeting that dealt with proposed changes to the state's insurance system. The group quickly soured on the experience after they weren't allowed to testify at the meeting before they had to get back on the buses.

"They mocked us," said Ginny Stevans, president of Having Affordable Coverage. "I think they should be held accountable for that."

Some lawmakers and rally watchers praised residents for generating so much fury and so many solutions for an issue as nuanced and complicated as property insurance.

"We weren't talking this language three years ago," said Bill Newton, president of the Florida Consumer Action Network. "This is a big step."

The bus ride from Pasco County to Tallahassee included conversations about coverage that insurance companies buy to protect themselves against catastrophic losses, sinkhole laws, rate-setting models and the reasons insurers give for the soaring rates.

"I am in a hole," said Jeanne Conlon, a retiree from New Port Richey.

The property insurance payment on Conlon's home is $2,400 this year, more than double what she pays for property taxes.

"The rates are going up much faster than the increases in my pension and Social Security," she said.

Conlon said she might mortgage her home to stay afloat. "I never imagined I'd be in this position."

Peter Garbacki doubts lawmakers have the courage to stand up to the powerful insurance industry, which has seen record profits nationally. Still, the 66-year-old relished the chance to confront and unnerve lawmakers.

"I am going to watch the rats lie to us," Garbacki said.

Upset by the Senate committee's gruff treatment, Garbacki called his daughter in Tampa as the bus left Tallahassee. "Honey, we are on the way home from the insurance fiasco," he said. "The rats did it to us. Florida is for the elite, not the people with dreams."

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668 or bhelgeson@tampatrib.com.