Bush Names P&C Reform Committee

Gov. Jeb Bush has created a Property and Casualty Insurance Reform Committee to examine the state’s property markets including the residential, commercial, mobile homes, commercial-residential, and government markets. The 15-member committee is also charged with finding ways to encourage the mitigation of structures, improve agent underwriting practices, and depopulated Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. The committee is scheduled to hold nine meetings across the state to take testimony from industry officials and homeowners. The committee’s report is due Nov. 15. The reform committee is the third such entity to be launched since the 2004 and 2005 legislative sessions.

At the committee’s first meeting, committee chair Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings acknowledged there were no easy solutions to the problems facing the market. While saying that the 2006 property bill was a good first step, she said more work is needed. “Insurance is not something with a quick solution, so we are back to see if we can’t find additional solutions,” she said. Jennings said the committee might be divided into two panels, one that would investigate residential insurance problems and another to examine problems in the commercial market.