Florida's Latest News

Reduce insurance costs by 25%? South Florida backers push bill they say would do it.

Two longtime South Florida political leaders are pushing a congressional bill they say would immediately lower the cost of homeowner property insurance by about 25% in Florida and across the nation.

That would be welcome news to millions of Florida homeowners suffering under backbreaking increases in property insurance costs over the past several years. The Insurance Information Institute, a nonprofit organization funded by large insurers, estimated in 2023 that Florida homes cost $6,000, three times the national average, to insure.

Steve Geller, a former Florida legislator and current Broward County commissioner, presented a plan he says would cut by half the amount of reinsurance that Florida-based insurance companies must purchase each year to ensure they can pay all claims in the event of a major storm.

Currently those companies are required by rating agency Demotech to purchase enough reinsurance to pay claims after a storm that has a 1-in-130-year chance of occurring. Geller says such a storm hasn’t happened in Florida. And it’s been since the 1920s that the state has experienced a 1-in-50-year storm.

Florida school districts seek extra tax revenue to combat teacher shortage

Hillsborough County schools continue to experience a teacher shortage. By one count, 10,000 students did not have a permanent teacher from the start of the school year.

But is that enough to convince voters to support a property tax referendum that would help pay teachers better? Hillsborough’s neighbors have passed similar tax questions — some are seeking renewals this year — and have fared better in faculty recruitment and retention.

So far, only a slim majority on the Hillsborough School Board is fully behind putting the question on the November ballot. The debate continues in April. 

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Calls mount for DeSantis to veto bill that makes it harder to file ethics complaints

A week after Florida lawmakers approved sharp new restrictions on ethics complaints filed against public officials, calls are increasing for Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto the measure to guard against corruption. 

Nine organizations signed onto a letter sent Thursday to DeSantis while local ethics officials and open government organizations are endorsing another pushing the governor to reject the legislation approved shortly before Florida’s 2024 session adjourned last week. 

“Whether intentional or not, the ethics bill creates an unreasonable barrier and deterrent for members of the public seeking to assist... with ethics enforcement,” according to the letter signed by the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause of Florida, Florida Rising, the state’s NAACP, Florida Ethics Institute and others.

“This bill allows unethical conduct to continue unchecked, thereby diminishing public trust in the Sunshine State,” the groups add. 

Securing public records in Florida can take cash, patience and lawyers

Getting public records in Florida increasingly takes waiting months, shelling out hundreds if not thousands of dollars, hiring a lawyer and in one recent case even having the police called. As Florida marks Sunshine Week, the atmosphere for open government is looking cloudy, First Amendment advocates said.

“Public records aren’t broken in Florida, but they are certainly walking with a limp,” said Bobby Block, executive director of Florida’s First Amendment Foundation. “Every year, the number of exemptions keeps growing.”

Sunshine Week, which started on Sunday, celebrates freedom of information laws. Florida’s Government in the Sunshine laws give anyone the right to inspect local and state government documents unless the records are specifically exempted by the Legislature.

They allow the public to review records that span from a government employee’s salary to an elected official’s emails dealing with official business.