>From the Palm Beach Post comes an interesting editorial:
Budget analysts expect that the state will get an extra $1.7
billion for the budget year that ends June 30 and about $1.5 billion more
than expected for 2006-07. The two main sources are continued high real
estate tax revenue - the state housing market isn’t cooling that much yet -
and higher sales tax revenue from hurricane cleanup business. A year ago,
much of the surplus came from Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne repairs, but
Gov. Bush and legislators used most of it for growth management.[...]With the added money, the Legislature could cut or eliminate the Citizens
assessment. Or the Legislature could use the money toward a new disaster
fund that would stabilize the property insurance market. Or the Legislature
could offer incentives - to mobile home owners, for example, to purchase
tie-downs that would minimize damage.
Now that’s not a bad idea. I can think of a few other ways to allocate the
funds (cat insurance tax credit for low/middle/fixed income households,
anyone?)…but with catastrophe coverage likely to be a significant issue
for Florida insureds in the next few years, if the surplus is to be
retained, rather than used to reduce taxes for Florida residents, addressing
a problem before it becomes a full-blown crisis seems like a pretty decent
idea.