A: There are a couple pieces of Citizens that we should really worry about. One is do we want [Citizens] to be insuring continued condo development on the beach? We need to have a serious policy discussion about how much we want Citizens to cover.

I know that Citizens is looking at this and OIR is looking at this. Do we want to say beyond a certain date we won't insure any new coastal development or do we say we will insure up to a certain dollar amount?

A month ago, we flew into Fort Lauderdale and we were going to the Fontainebleau Hotel. I said to my husband "Let's take A1A." We drove through Aventura and Sunny Isles, all the way down. It was stunningly frightening.

It's just the real estate market in South Florida -- feast or famine. But now I'm seeing it through a new lens: Oh my gosh. Citizens is probably going to write the insurance on every single apartment and every one of those new buildings.

Q: What's the other part of Citizens that gives you pause?

A: During the special session when the Legislature rolled back the 25-percent rate increase that Citizens was supposed to have this year, right from that moment -- assuming that was an appropriate rate increase -- we put them under water in terms of having actuarially sound rates.

So then they -- not me -- passed a law [during the regular session] that said no premium increases until 2009. How much more actuarially unsound do we want them to be?

The way I look at it is that we're shareholders of Citizens Property Insurance. It's my company. It's only fair to have shareholders know what risk is there and what the potential exposure is.

If the company goes bankrupt, I'm going to have to write a little check [to cover Citizens' assessments] -- maybe not so little -- and it might be for a lot of years -- could be up to 30 years.

Q: What about the state's no-fault law? Sunset or reform?

A: If the decision is made to keep PIP, then we have to have some limits on utilization and we have to have a fee schedule. We can key [the price limits] off Medicare. Make it 200 percent or 300 percent of Medicare, somewhere in this range.

And we should have more money for fraud investigators so we can hire them at competitive salaries.

ALEX SINK

* Current job: Florida's chief financial officer, first elected position.

* Job description: Oversees state tax funds, including accounting, auditing and investments; oversees insurance agents and agencies as well as consumer financial services.

* Past experience: Bank of America's Florida president for seven years; retired in 2000.

* Education: Bachelor's in math, Wake Forest University.

* Personal: Married to 2002 gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride; lives in Thonotosassa in eastern Hillsborough County with their two teenage children, Bert and Lexie, and several dogs.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@