A Florida Senator pitches a tax break for hardening homes

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Window home repair by Niko_Cingaryuk via iStock for WMNF News.

By Jim Turner ©2024 The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — A key senator on Wednesday suggested that lawmakers should consider a property tax break, which could be spread over a number of years, for people who try to make older homes more storm-resilient.

The proposal floated by Florida Senate Banking and Insurance Chairman Blaise Ingoglia comes as lawmakers in recent years have passed a series of measures aimed at trying to stabilize the state’s property insurance market.

Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, encouraged his colleagues to consider additional ways to save homeowners money while also protecting governments from costs related to disaster restoration.

“If we can get those older homes to be more resilient, it will save local governments a lot of money,” Ingoglia said during an appearance at the 2024 Florida Chamber of Commerce’s annual insurance summit in Orlando. “And the most important thing, from the homeowners’ perspective, they will have a home that is now resilient, that they don’t have to pay a ton of money for insurance premiums.”

Ingoglia’s plan, targeted at homes built in the 1980s or earlier, would freeze local property taxes for 15 to 20 years in exchange for upgrading the residences to comply with current building standards.

Ingoglia said he thought of the proposal after surveying damages along the Gulf Coast following Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

“Everything that is built to today’s building codes, in today’s elevations, was pretty much fine. It had some damage, but it wasn’t catastrophic damage,” Ingoglia said.

Helene came ashore in Taylor County on Sept. 26 with 140 mph sustained winds, making it the third hurricane to hit the Big Bend region in 13 months. Thirteen days later, Milton made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County and caused widespread damage throughout the state.

Most of the damage along the Gulf Coast affected older homes that were constructed at sea-level elevation, Ingoglia said. Newer building codes require homes that could be susceptible to storm surges to be elevated.

“It was very apparent to me that that’s where all the losses were. That’s where the insurance losses were. That’s where the losses for the homeowners were. That’s where money was put up by local government, state government and federal government,” he added.

Ingoglia, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, hasn’t filed legislation for the proposal and conceded that his “out of the box” idea doesn’t have the backing of Gov. Ron DeSantis or Senate leadership.

Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie also appeared at the Chamber’s insurance event Wednesday.

According to Guthrie, the state is on the “cusp” of finalizing a new program with the U.S. Small Business Administration aimed at assisting homeowners who are trying to rebuild from recent hurricanes and strengthen their homes.

“We are working with our federal counterparts, along with the folks here in the state of Florida, to do some new things that are going to directly impact homeowners and are going to directly impact their insurance rates and their National Flood Insurance Program. So, more to come,” Guthrie said.

Lawmakers have taken a number of steps over the past few years to address the insurance issue, as insurance companies left the state and homeowners’ premiums soared.

As an example, the Legislature in 2022 provided $2 billion to help insurers with reinsurance, which is critical backup coverage for insurance companies. Lawmakers provided another $1 billion for reinsurance in 2023.

Lawmakers also have passed measures aimed at shifting policies from the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. into the private market.

The Republican-controlled Legislature also approved proposals seeking to limit lawsuits over property insurance. Such efforts included eliminating what are known as “one-way attorney fees” in an effort to reduce litigation costs and doing away with the long-controversial practice of assignment of benefits for property insurance claims. Assignment of benefits involves policyholders signing over claims to contractors, who then pursue payment from insurers. Insurers contend the practice led to increased lawsuits.

Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, highlighted the insurance issue during his opening address to senators last month. Albritton said lawmakers need to hold the insurance industry accountable as homeowners struggle with affordability and the state recovers from a series of hurricanes over the past several years.

“Be assured, together, we are going to recover, and we are going to rebuild. However, we know that when a family loses everything, the first place they’re going to look for help is not the government — it’s their insurance company,” the Wauchula Republican said. “Floridians have been faithfully paying insurance premiums for years, sometimes decades, and now they expect their insurance company to keep up its end of the bargain.”

Albritton also sent a direct signal to insurers during his Nov. 19 remarks.

“I want to make sure that impacted Floridians and insurance companies hear me loudly and clearly — we are watching. We’ve made changes insurance companies said they needed to improve competition and stabilize rates. And, we’ve enacted pro-consumer transparency to protect homeowners. The proof will be in the results. I’m not going to sit idly by if legitimate claims get denied while rates continue to rise,” he said.

5 Responses to “A Florida Senator pitches a tax break for hardening homes”

  1. Susan Benincasa

    It is the government who is preventing us from being back in our homes. My home has been claim free for a decade, it is not my home or most of my neighbors that are causing the insurance crisis. Government has failed to reinforce their own buildings or the systems they are responsible for maintaining. 500,000 gallons of sewage spills, ineffectual “repeat” governments (barrier islands are St Petersburg but we receive none of the benefits such as rat control, we pay 3x water sewer and our cities use the money for everything but sewer and a failing electrical infrastructure that was promised to be rectified at least since Irma hit. My new drywall and electrical checks are not crippling anyone including my insurance -at 16k per year they can handle ONE payout.

    Reply
  2. Jennifer McGarvey

    Please make insurance more helpful and affordable for the lower and middle class. And please help me, a senior citizen on low income, be able to afford fixing up our homes. I can not even afford to pay to have my windows replace, some of them don’t even work properly. And they need to be upgraded to hurricane strength. I’ve been in Florida 55 years and it is becoming so hard to do accomplish what I need done. Thank you.

    Reply
  3. Jennifer McGarvey

    Help. I need help with insurance payments and help getting new windows. Any thing you can do for the low and middle income citizens would surely be appreciated. As a senior on low income, I barely have enough income for everyday living expenses and my windows are really in bad shape. And they need to be updated to hurricane strenght. Thank you.

    Reply
  4. Joan Sherwin

    Just remember that if a homeowner has owned their house for a considerable time, their property taxes are quite inexpensive. It would not offset the enormous cost of lifint and hardening any small house. How about we think about protecting our city with clean new drainage equipment and dikes that could prevent certain bays and rivers from overflow. It’s complex and any solution needs to target all interest groups.

    Reply
  5. Dorthy dee

    Sarasota has not taken care of off there sub station for a few years i live I know this to true
    They did nothing before
    The hurricane s come last
    Siesta was terrible no help was given or very little
    Now I’m supposed to raise my
    House it’s on a slab I’ve lived 21 year is right that I can’t have family to help repair my house
    We can’t afford to due wat their asking I’m not the only on
    We truly need help

    Reply

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