I couldn’t resist this one. First it deals with one of my favorite Floridian subjects, insurance, and one of my least: politics. While I have my own political views, I learned early in my career that real estate was no place for them. The reason was simple: at some point and perhaps even at the same time, you could be working with people or companies from both parties. You cannot afford to alienate either one (or anyone else for that matter!) so you cannot choose sides. That is my attitude on this story and blogging in general, reporting it objectively as possible. But it is not easy here as you might agree soon. On the surface this article sounds great! Our Governor is visiting with the local communities, and blasting the President for not stopping the huge flood insurance increases that were passed by Congress in 2012 in the Biggert-Waters Act.
Scott mentions that just last week the area was hit with floods in Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. However, when pressed to declare a state emergency by local politicians from those areas, Scott said that only FEMA can decide such things. While this is true, this chance to actually do something about the actual flood damage doesn’t fit with the rest of this story as you will see. Later in the article, it mentions the possibility of some flood insurance premiums jumping from $4,000 to $40,000 which causes 2 problems for people affected by the increases. Many times the resident can’t afford the increase and then the other option, selling the property, won’t work because the cost of the insurance deters potential buyers. This is certainly terrible and no one wants this to happen to people, but there is another side to this story. In fact, the whole thing is a political sham. First of all, the setting doesn’t jibe in anyway with people getting hard hit from big jumps in flood insurance, Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. When you look at the numbers of people being affected by this insurance increase though, the setting makes perfect sense as 1,900 of the almost 5,000 homes to get increases are located in Palm Beach. So Rick was really there trying to show the wealthiest people in the world that he was going to fight against Obama and “Washington” to stop these unfair increases. On the other side of the argument is R Street Institute in Washington who has lobbied Congress not to give in on the issue as it only serves to “subsidize beach homes for the wealthy.”
Now let’s look at the last part of this show: Scott raging against Obama and “Washington” to stop this injustice from happening to Floridians. The facts are that Obama doesn’t have anything to do with possibly stopping the flood insurance increases and Scott knows this. The US House, controlled by Scott’s GOP, is what is preventing the passage of a bill to delay the flood increases and they have been for 4 years. So in the middle of this silly, contrived, politically staged event are actually real people who truly cannot afford these increases, effectively political collateral damage. The reason for this little event is the upcoming election that Scott is vying for reelection in this November. I would really prefer he be in office, earning his salary paid by the tax payers, trying to actually accomplish things instead of insulting the public’s intelligence with these kinds of events. I lost a lot of respect for him on this one, so the timing sucks for him. What do you think?
Gov. Scott calls for stop to flood insurance hikes in Palm Beach
Orin Rosenfeld
President
Rosenfeld Realty Advisors
9858 Glades Rd. Suite 209
Boca Raton, FL 33434
Phone: 561-756-1665
Fax: 561-470-0707
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