Tag: Ron DeSantis

US Senate committee investigating Citizens Insurance over inability to cover losses

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://nbc-2.com/news/state/2023/12/01/us-senate-committee-investigating-citizens-insurance-over-inability-to-cover-losses/

Excerpt:

The federal government has launched an investigation into Florida’s largest home insurance company.

Citizens Insurance, the governor, and other state leaders received a letter informing them that a Senate budget committee is looking into the state-run company.

Here’s why a Senate budget committee is looking into the company.

Citizens insure $586 billion worth of property, and they have just over $15 billion in their reserves to pay out on claims. If a major hurricane hit the state, they could be short over $571 billion, leaving everyone in the state on the hook to pay the shortfall.

The letter from the Senate committee investigating the state backed company expresses concern it may be unable to cover its losses. A claim the governor confirmed while visiting Fort Myers last year.

….

Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute said a private insurer would not be allowed to operate in the State of Florida with those financial dynamics.

Seven private companies went insolvent in the last year and a half in Florida.

“Citizens, unlike a private insurer, could never go insolvent,” Friedlander noted.

That’s because the state could initiate a hurricane tax to cover its costs which would require everyone who owns property or a car to pay a hurricane tax.

Author(s): Dave Elias

Publication Date: 4 Dec 2023

Publication Site: NBC 2, Florida Weekly

A Sneaky Form of Climate Obstruction Hurts Pension Funds

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/17/opinion/environment/climate-change-pension-texas-florida.html

Excerpt:

Mr. Read is the Oregon state treasurer.

In several Republican-led states, the officials who oversee pension funds for millions of state workers are being told, or may soon be told, to ignore the financial risks associated with a warming world. There’s something distinctly anti-free market about policymakers limiting investment professionals’ choices — and it’s putting the retirement savings of millions at risk.

The Texas comptroller, Glenn Hegar, recently announced that 10 financial firms and 348 funds could be barred from doing business with the state’s pension plans because they appeared to consider environmental risks in their investment decisions regarding the fossil fuel industry. The day before, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced a similar move. Other states, including Idaho, Louisiana and West Virginia, have either taken or are thinking of taking similar actions, which amount to ideological litmus tests that will likely result in lower returns for pensioners.

Author(s): Tobias Read

Publication Date: 17 Sept 2022

Publication Site: NYT

Governor Moves to Bar Florida SBA From ESG Investing

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/governor-moves-to-bar-florida-sba-from-esg-investing/

Excerpt:

The latest anti-ESG onslaught from Republican state officials is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign to forbid the Florida State Board of Administration from adopting environmental, social and governance investing tenets. At the moment, SBA doesn’t appear to be a devotee of ESG.

The governor, an outspoken conservative, plans to propose at an SBA meeting on August 15 that the body’s fiduciary duties must exclude ESG. “From Wall Street banks to massive asset managers and big tech companies, we have seen the corporate elite use their economic power to impose policies on the country that they could not achieve at the ballot box,” DeSantis said in a statement.

DeSantis, a possible GOP presidential contender in 2024, declared that “we are protecting Floridians from woke capital and asserting the authority of our constitutional system over ideological corporate power.” He also plans to push through legislation banning the SBA from making ESG-themed investments and requiring them to focus on maximizing returns.

Author(s): Larry Light

Publication Date: 5 Aug 2022

Publication Site: ai-CIO

Yahoo Story on Florida COVID Study Misrepresented Key Finding, Study’s Author Says

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/yahoo-story-on-florida-covid-study-misrepresented-key-finding-studys-author-says/

Excerpt:

But Moosa Tatar, the lead author of the study featured by Yahoo, said the story’s framing of his analysis was incorrect, and he does not yet know how many of the excess deaths are attributable to COVID.

“The impact of COVID-19 on mortality is significantly greater than the official COVID-19 data suggest. But we need further research to determine specific reasons for this,” he told National Review. “These deaths may have been directly or indirectly associated with COVID-19.”

Nazaryan went on to imply that Governor Ron DeSantis could be pressuring the state’s medical examiners, who have “some discretion,” to deliberately undercount COVID deaths. “In Florida, the state’s 25 district medical examiners are directly appointed by the governor,” he noted.

Author(s): Tobias Hoonhout

Publication Date: 30 March 2021

Publication Site: National Review

Florida Filters Public COVID Data While Virus Takes a Toll

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.governing.com/now/Florida-Filters-Public-COVID-Data-While-Virus-Takes-a-Toll.html

Excerpt:

Most of the public isn’t worried about people testing negative for COVID-19, but for researchers that data is an essential tool to understanding the path of the virus as it courses through Florida, killing more than 30,000 and infecting more than 1.9 million people.

“They’re definitely not releasing everything,” Hladish said last week. “It has a huge impact on scientists’ ability to understand what’s going on.”

The Herald/ Times interviewed more than two dozen researchers, journalists and legislators about their experience with open records in the last year and the common conclusion was: Florida health officials are reluctant to release new data related to COVID-19 that contradicts the governor’s upbeat narrative and they frequently withhold information until they are either threatened with a lawsuit, or convinced the trend lines have improved. (See: Timeline of Florida’s Dark Year for Sunshine.)

Author(s): MARY ELLEN KLAS, THE MIAMI HERALD

Publication Date: 1 March 2021

Publication Site: Governing