Because so many “real” insurance companies are fleeing Florida like rats abandoning a sinking ship, the Legislature created Citizens to offer coverage to those who cannot find it elsewhere. By law, Citizens must charge higher rates than the top 20 private insurers, and still it reported a deficit in 2005 of $1.7 billion. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

Lawmakers and industry lobbyists love to blame the recent flurry of hurricanes, but the roots of the crisis are simply this: POLITICAL TIMIDITY and OLD FASHIONED GREED. The hurricanes of recent memory, going back to Andrew, simply serve to point out the obvious.

Planning has always been a farce in Florida. Generations of legislators and Cabinet member have obediently taken their cues from developers, bankers and road builders, and now we plainly see the results. Just take a trip up Highway 19 from Pinellas County to Hernando County on the west coast or, if you dare, a run from South Beach to Fort Pierce on the east coast.

Coastal areas are so recklessly over-developed and over-populated that even the puniest of hurricanes or tropical storms become a crippling event. Mass evacuation equals guaranteed bedlam! Those that choose to stay and weather the storm can look forward to long days, perhaps weeks, without electricity, ice, water and gasoline… and of course the old American tradition of looting that bring about curfews.

The pain doesn’t end with the storm season. Citizens property and those private insurers that haven’t already abandoned our state promptly jack-up their residential rates – and not just for the poor customer who suffered storm damage and filed a claim. Everybody gets screwed! And when working class Floridians turn for relief to their elected representatives, all they get is a collective shrug, as if only Jean Dixon or Nostradamus could have foreseen such a scenario.

Hurricanes have been clobbering this place for hundreds of years, a fact that, despite ample documentation has escaped the notice of politicians, builders and developers, and, until about 14 years ago, the insurance industry.

Simply put, there was just too much money to be made in high-density coastal development to allow a few sane and responsible urban planners to stand in the way. Every season that passed without a major storm emboldened the advocates of the pave-and-plunder mentality.

The mission was always simple: To cram as many human beings into as many subdivisions and condominiums as the law would allow – and the law was always friendly to the cause. It was NEVER about anything other than MONEY.

In the summer of 1992, Mother Nature delivered a major weather event by the name of Andrew. It was partly a wake-up call and partly an IQ test. Nobody woke up!!!! Nobody got smart!!!

The notion of limiting density – and thus damage exposure - was never seriously contemplated, as it would have interfered with the massive profit margins associated with waterfront real estate. Instead, a great deal of effort was devoted to strengthening the State’s Building Codes, which had previously been the equivalent of Triscuits and Elmer’s Glue as construction materials.

Floridians who now diligently seek out the most solidly built homes are sometimes startled to find no substantial improvement in their insurance rates. That’s because the insurance companies, including Citizens, have done what politicians have never dared to do: THE MATH!

It is impossible to adequately insure every vulnerable home in Florida because there are just TOO many, and the risk is TOO high. The only way for insurance firms to begin to cover their liability is by soaking EVERYONE. Fairness is not a factor.

This is a dangerous game of dominoes. If windstorm insurance gets much more exorbitant it will negatively affect the housing market, which will negatively affect banking and construction interests, which will negatively affect the amount of campaign contributions flowing to legislators. Moreover, actual voters have been complaining heatedly about property insurance rates, an issue that lawmakers correctly perceive as a potential threat to their re-election.

Ironically, the same hurricanes they’ve been blaming for the fiasco have provided a temporary bailout option for Citizens. The state budget is as bloated as an August road-kill with sales tax revenues generated by the re-building efforts following the storms of 2004 and 2005 – windfall booty from the blue-tarp economy. Both the House and the Senate are considering ways to partially off-set Citizens’ latest insurance surcharges with between $750 million and $920 million from the sales-tax coffers.

This will make some people feel a little better for the short term. Hurricane season starts in about 35 days, and if it is half as bad as forecasters say it will be, or even half as bad as last year – Citizens will sink like a rock!