Jolly and Donalds clash on how to fix Florida's property insurance crisis

The Byron Donalds campaign is aggressively attacking David Jolly's plan to reduce homeowners' insurance rates.

The Democratic candidate for governor is proposing a state catastrophic insurance fund that would remove hurricane and wind coverage from the private insurance market. He says doing so could reduce homeowners' insurance costs by 60% to 70%.

Donalds counters on the campaign trail and in a television ad that Jolly's plan would institute a $1,000 "hurricane tax" on Florida families.

"It's all lies," Jolly responded during a press conference in St. Petersburg this week when asked about the ad. He said his team has never published a detailed plan for anyone to dissect, and emphasized that "it does not include an additional $1,000 tax for homeowners. No governor is going to do that."

The Donalds campaign cites a recently published study from Florida State University as the source of its contention that Jolly's plan would blow a hole in Florida voters' pockets if approved. But that FSU study isn't based on Jolly's proposal, but on a plan first introduced by a bipartisan pair of Florida lawmakers in 2024.

That proposal aimed to transform Citizens Property Insurance Corp. — the state-backed property insurer of last resort — by allowing all homeowners to become eligible to buy Citizens coverage specifically for wind damage.

What Jolly has proposed is a state-backed "catastrophic fund" for homeowners' insurance, fully removing hurricane and wind coverage from the private marketplace and putting it into a state sovereign wealth fund, which he contends would substantially cut homeowners insurance rates.

He says the fund would be paid for by making insurance companies pay taxes that they now avoid, adding that fees on real estate transactions (better known as Florida documentary tax stamps) and existing tourist development taxes (TDTs), are also "on the table" to build up that fund.

Donalds said using TDT funds wouldn't raise nearly enough money to fund Jolly's plan, and that those funds are imposed at the county level. "I thought he believed in local control?" he said this week. "Apparently not."

FSU study on 2025 proposed plan

The FSU study was published last month and lists potential advantages and risks for policymakers if all homeworkers used Citizens for wind coverage. Among the potential advantages: "An improved private market study and insurance solvency; Potential for lower cost of capital through public financing and greater uniformity in coverage and pricing structures."

The negatives include: "The concentration of catastrophic risk in a single entity; Increased likelihood and magnitude of statewide assessments; Potential impact on state capital perception; Reduced competition and innovation in insurance markets; and exposure to special interest pressures in rate-setting and funding decisions."

The FSU study also says that when the state assumes the risk of wind accounts, premiums could rise anywhere from 21% to 139%.

Donalds says it would be a government boondoggle, comparable to the federal Affordable Care Act. "Anytime the government takes over, it gets worse. The premiums get higher, and you don't get the coverage that you were promised," he said this week during a roundtable discussion in Indian Rocks Beach.

Jolly responds by noting that the state already has a state catastrophic fund (called the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund), created in a special legislative session following the destruction wrought upon Florida by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. "Right now, that fund only reimburses insurance companies for a share of their hurricane losses. It is a bailout for insurers," he says on his campaign website.

Jolly notes that existing state law already says that if a devastating storm or series of storms leaves Citizens in a deficit, the company can charge its own policyholders a surcharge of up to 15%, and if a deficit still remains it can charge an emergency assessment of up to 10% per year on other property and casualty policies in the state not provided by Citizens, including homeowners, renters, and those with auto insurance policies.

The FSU study was commissioned in 2025 after Broward County Republican Rep. Hillary Cassel withdrew a legislative proposal (HB 13) that would require Citizens to make windstorm coverage available to all homeowners in Florida. The proposal was originally floated during the 2024 legislative session by Cassel (a Democrat at the time) and former North Fort Myers Beach Republican Spencer Roach, and something similar was proposed by a Florida lawmaker in 2006.

"What I really find interesting is that idea that I've been talking about for several years, the Democratic potential nominee, David Jolly, runs on my idea," Cassel said on This Week in South Florida with Glenna Milberg right before last month's primary election. "So, it is the solution, it is one of the solutions for property insurance, and we as Republicans have taken that on and are studying it with the number one insurance program in the country to figure out how we can apply that across the state."

Donalds plan

Meanwhile, Donalds unveiled his "Bring Down the Bill" property insurance package this week. Among its provisions:

* Reforming the Florida Hurricane Catastrophic Fund "by reducing an unnecessary surcharge on policyholders when the fund is strong."

* Maintaining 2022 and 2023 legislation that that has resulted in a reduction of homeowners' insurance lawsuits that, in turn, has helped lower insurance companies' legal costs and resulted in lower homeowner insurance premiums.

* Restructures the My Safe Florida Home grant and other grants by directing all state agencies receiving funding for projects that benefit homeowners to "coordinate on prioritizing grants for the greatest impact on homeowners."

* Create a "Insurer Scorecard" showing pricing, claims approval rates, denial rates, and time to payment for every carrier in Florida.

* Work on reducing the number of Citizens policies. Since 2022, Citizens' policy count has dropped from 1.4 million in late 2023 to approximately 274,000, according to a Citizens press release in June.

"I would simply ask: Are you good with what Byron Donalds wants to continue in the state of Florida with homeowners' insurance? 'Cause he's offering more of the same and transparency," Jolly said on Monday. "Transparency doesn't reduce costs."

Donalds countered on Tuesday during an event in Hillsborough County that Jolly's homeowners' insurance plan was "a big government takeover. That is Democrat policy 101. Blame everybody else, give it to the government. Make a grand promise that you know you can't pay for, and then by the time you're gone from office it's the next person's fault."

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: [email protected].

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