TALLAHASSEE - The question of how legislators will help Floridians with skyrocketing windstorm insurance bills is coming down to this: the perennial battle over whether less government is better than more government.
In a three-day House legislative conference to brainstorm solutions, Republican leaders this week pushed forward ideas that deregulate the homeowners' insurance market while Democrats offered a more drastic measure: the creation of a New Deal-styled ''Rate Reduction Authority'' that would have super powers to write state-backed insurance for homeowners and businesses.
The contrasting ideas represent the ideological poles in the debate that is forcing lawmakers to come back to Tallahassee Jan.
16 for a week-long special session to find a fix to homeowner's insurance woes.
But as House members tried to find middle ground Wednesday, their discussion only skirted the heart of the insurance crisis: spiraling insurance rates. There were no specific ideas for how to reduce them.
''No one is claiming to have a plan that immediately lowers rates by a dramatic amount,'' said House Speaker Marco Rubio, the Miami Republican who called the session to education members about the crisis. ``It's our goal to have such a plan. We'll continue to search until we get there.
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Republicans argued government could revive the private market by removing regulatory barriers that impede competition. They said homeowners should be able to lower their insurance costs by receiving loans and credits to strengthen their homes and increasing their deductibles. Other Republicans want a tax-free savings accounts to allow homeowners to set aside emergency cash for a storm.
Democrats countered that the private market has already rejected Florida and the state's foundering insurance market calls for a desperate solution: a new super board that would be authorized to write insurance, issue bonds, borrow money from the federal government, and have the flexibility to decide how much risk the state-run insurer would assume until the private market is restored.
The plan is to shift the billions the state now spends on Citizens Insurance and the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which subsidizes back-up insurance to the private market, to a state-run insurance program.
By removing the need for homeowners to finance reinsurance -- what's driving up insurance costs the most -- rates would decline within three months, said Rep.
Jack Seiler, the Wilton Manors Democrat who helped draft the Democrat's plan.
The ''Rate Reduction'' board would be closely monitored by a legislative audit committee and it would have the power to order insurers to rollback rates.
''We don't need more deregulation,'' Seiler said.
Conservatives and industry officials, however, held firm to the idea that the only way to salvage the market was to lessen government regulation and allow rates to rise.
''I am not in favor of complete deregulation of insurance in Florida but I do believe it is a legitimate public policy question as to whether or not we can regulate our way out of this crisis,'' said Rep. Don Brown, the DeFuniak Springs Republican who will lead the House insurance council.
Rubio conceded the debate over how much farther government should go in the insurance business will end up somewhere in the middle, with legislators returning to Tallahassee Jan. 8 to start committee hearings on the issue.
''Everyone recognizes government is already in the business of insurance, that there is going to be a need -- at least in the short term -- of government involvement, and everyone believes, ultimately, it will lead to a free, open, and vibrant market,'' Rubio said.
The divide is as much partisan as it is geographical, pitting urban coastal and inland rural representatives against each other.
Two likely quick solutions with broad consensus: expanding government grant programs to allow citizens to strengthen roofs, and allowing insurance companies to more easily tap the state-funded pool that provides re-insurance, or insurance for insurance companies.
Rep.
Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, and Delray Beach Rep. Adam Hasner, proposed a package of reforms that would provide low-interest roof-strengthening loans, establish a roof-inspection program and a zero deductible for claims of roof damage, though the payouts would be based on a roof's depreciated value.
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