Fla. Gov. Says Primary Date Is Wedge For U.S. Cat Fund

WASHINGTON--Florida's Republican Gov. Charles Crist said in a television interview yesterday that he intends to use his state's move to an earlier primary election date to pressure presidential candidates into supporting a national catastrophe fund.

In an appearance on CNBC, Mr. Crist said also that he will continue to blast the insurance industry over home insurance rates. "Sometimes these big industries can try to take advantage of our people to their detriment, and that's not right," he said.

The governor recently supported legislation banning future Florida-only insurer subsidiaries by national carriers.

A national catastrophe fund could be helpful to Florida if there is a serious event, which experts say the state is underreserved for with its own cat fund and with its insurer of last resort.

Mr. Crist made his comments concerning insurance in response to a question from CNBC anchor Erin Burnett.

He was being interviewed in connection with his effort o get nearly half the nation's governors to sign a letter asking Congress "to investigate and remedy" surging gas prices. "We can't emphasize this enough," Gov. Crist said. "They're up 50 percent since the beginning of February."

Ms. Burnett, who commented that the governor has a 73 percent approval rating in his state, touched off his comments on insurance with questions concerning predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration yesterday of a severe hurricane season.

"What does that mean to the state of Florida?" she asked. "I mean, you already don't have Allstate really operating there or any of the other major insurers."

Gov. Crist responded that "most major insurers, in fact, are operating in the state of Florida, but they're operating now on a level playing field where the consumer's rights are being heard, too, for the first time in a long time."

"And it's the right thing to do," he said. He added, "I'm so proud of the Florida Legislature," noting that the House Speaker, Marco Rubio, and "our Senate president, Ken Pruitt, led the charge to be able to make sure that the insurance industry wasn't taking advantage of Floridians any more."

He then said high insurance rates in areas of catastrophic storms "is a national issue. It's an opportunity for us to push for a national catastrophic fund."

"We already have one [state catastrophe fund] in the state of Florida," he said. "And I know that candidates for president in next year's elections are talking about this because of something else we have done that I think is smart in Florida: We moved up our primary.

"Our primary is now January 29th of 2008, and it's an important thing to do, to get these kinds of issues that are not just important to Florida but to America on the front burner," Gov. Crist said.

Ms. Burnett responded by asking, "Isn't 'catastrophic,' though, just another way of saying, 'We're gonna have people who live either in the center of the state of Florida or somewhere like Iowa actually picking up the tab for people who choose to live on Miami Beach and won't pay market rates for their insurance?'"

Gov. Crist responded, "I don't believe that's the right way to look at it because if you ask people in Kansas about tornados, that's not exactly a coastal state, but they sure could [take] advantage from a national catastrophic fund. Or blizzards in Michigan or in the North."

He noted that "some of these storm predictions show that some might go up to New Jersey or New York this year. You never know where they're gonna come, or earthquakes in California, or fires, as we've had recently here in Florida and other states."

The governor explained, "What I think is important is the federal government's gonna come in, anyway.

"Ultimately, they did in Katrina," he continued. "Why not do it in a smart fashion? Why not do it in a way where we can get the premiums upfront, collect some interest on the money while it's there, and since the government's gonna come in, anyway, to protect us from these natural disasters, let's do it in a way that's smart and makes common sense."

While Gov. Crist and the legislature's initiatives have apparently made him extremely popular in the state, insurance industry and state fiscal officials have called the policies a gamble.

Florida has frozen rates for Citizens, its insurer of last resort, increased the size of its Catastrophe Fund to provide cheap reinsurance to carriers, and moved to restrict the use of national insurers' subsidiaries. A number of sources, including the state's chief financial officer, have called the moves an actuarially unsound gamble.