Tough love coming in insurance session. Pols indicted. More silencing schools

It’s Monday, Dec. 12, and here is a sure sign the election season is over: Florida legislators return to Tallahassee today with a plan to make a lot of people unhappy.

Late Friday, legislators released a tough-love set of insurance and lawsuit reforms that, if passed, will send plaintiffs’ lawyers scrambling, many homeowners confused, and perhaps leave insurers relieved. It will create more hurdles for roofers and contractors in an effort to make it more inconvenient for fraudsters. It will be more difficult to sue an insurance company for failing to promptly pay a claim or for low-balling a payment. People stuck with Citizens Property Insurance, the insurer of last resort, will see their bills rise as they will be on the hook for buying a flood insurance policy. And if you own a second home in Florida, your insurance policy is going to cost more.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

Will it be enough? Florida’s property insurance market is in free fall. Florida homeowners pay property insurance rates that are three times the national average. The legislative plan to resolve the state’s property insurance woes is to require insurers to respond to claims faster, make homeowners file claims sooner, reduce the incentives to sue insurers and offer a taxpayer-funded $1 billion bailout program for companies.

The package of proposals does include some new consumer protections. But it may also be a few years too late to immediately stanch the rising cost of homeowners insurance that has made Florida policies the most expensive in the nation.

Enriching the execs: One item not on the list of reforms is the insurance industry’s shell company system. Because the hurricane-prone state is high risk, lawmakers and regulators attempted to attract investors with a system that allows Florida-based insurance companies to create shell companies to siphon more than 30% of the premium revenues.

But how much of Florida’s double-digit rate hikes have gone into enriching executive salaries? Records show that even as profits shrank, insurers awarded millions of dollars in stock dividends to company officers and directors, and gave corporate executives compensation packages of between $9 million and $27 million.

Rivera’s latest charges: Former Miami Congressman David Rivera was arrested last week on federal criminal charges, including failing to register as a foreign agent for Venezuela, stemming from his $50 million consulting contract with the country’s oil company that supposedly aimed to improve its tarnished image in the United States. Rivera and his former Miami-Dade political consultant, Esther Nuhfer, were indicted on charges of money laundering, conspiring to commit offenses against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents while working for Venezuela’s oil subsidiary, PDV USA.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

State rep accused of fraud: Rep. Joe Harding, an Ocala Republican who was the chief sponsor of the “Parental Rights in Education Act,” also known as the “don’t say gay” law, was indicted last week on charges of money laundering and wire fraud. A federal grand jury said he falsely used two inactive businesses to defraud the Small Business Administration to obtain more than $150,000 in COVID-related loans.

One day after being indicted, Harding announced his resignation from Florida’s House of Representatives. He said in a statement that he had repaid “every penny” of the loan.

Same sex silencing: School districts around the state will also learn this week whether Florida’s Board of Education thinks they are sufficiently carrying out the state’s Parental Rights in Education law. Although supporters defended the bill and chastised the “don’t say gay” label, saying the bill wasn’t intended to out LGBTQ students or harass transgender kids, the Florida Department of Education has put 10 districts on notice suggesting their policies “may not comport” with the new law.

Broward superintendent learns fate this week: A conflicted Broward School Board will decide this week whether to move forward with firing Superintendent Vickie Cartwright or to rescind her termination. The meeting on Tuesday is the first since the swearing-in ceremony of three new elected board members on Nov. 22. There are expected to be dueling motions: on one side, Jeff Holness, the representative for District 5 who just joined the board after winning his runoff election on Nov. 8, appears to want to keep Cartwright while Chair Lori Alhadeff wants her removed.

Opening or closing minds? A state Department of Education work group is crafting training that all school-library workers must use in selecting books and other materials. But tensions have simmered because some members of the panel don’t believe its recommendations go far enough.

The group, which includes parents and school media specialists, was formed to carry out part of a new law that requires school boards to adopt procedures that provide for the “regular removal or discontinuance” of books from media centers based on factors such as alignment with state academic standards. Members of the conservative group Moms for Liberty, however, say they want librarians to limit what kids are exposed to, even suggesting they shouldn’t provide materials about how to register to vote.

DeSantis team exits: As Gov. Ron DeSantis moves into a second term as governor, two more state agency heads are stepping down from their posts. DeSantis announced in a series of tweets that Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Dane Eagle and Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Terry Rhodes are resigning from their jobs this month and in February, respectively. Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Simone Marstiller announced her resignation last month.

Ignoring Trump: Bloomberg reported that at a closed-door event for his campaign donors in Miami on Sunday night, DeSantis offered up a predictable assessment of his victory, ignored his potential 2024 rival for president, Donald Trump, and thanked his donors.

Person of the Year: Before Time magazine announced its 2022 Person of the Year was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it released a list of nine other contenders. They included Iranian protesters; Rep. Liz Cheney and Chinese leader Xi Jinping; the U.S. Supreme Court; Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; gun safety advocates; MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos; Elon Musk; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The annual title recognizes the person, group or idea that had the biggest global influence, positive or negative, during the past year.

Fox News media critic Howard Kurtz, who had suggested Zelenskyy deserved the recognition but not DeSantis: “Let’s pause for a moment, because is DeSantis really a front-runner in 2024?’’ Kurtz wrote. “Yes, he won a near-landslide in Florida and has shrewdly made himself into a national figure, but it’s also possible he won’t run. Not likely, but possible.”

Another elections fraud case dies: A Miami judge has tossed out another voter fraud case brought by DeSantis’ elections police, the third case to fall apart since the governor announced the arrests. Circuit Judge Laura Anne Stuzin reached the same conclusion as another Miami judge did in a different voter’s case, saying that statewide prosecutors didn’t have the ability to bring charges against Ronald Lee Miller.

Bill grounds Homestead airport: A defense funding bill that passed the U.S. House last week has a bonus for Miami-Dade environmental groups fighting a county push to bring civilian air service to Homestead Air Reserve Base. Legislation backed by Miami Republicans, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Carlos Gimenez bans the base from approving agreements for private air operators through the fall of 2026. Assuming the language passes the U.S. Senate this week, the legislation puts a freeze on a controversy that had environmental groups warning Homestead could become a new cargo air hub around sensitive marshlands and coastal Biscayne Bay.

Miami’s new U.S. attorney: Markenzy Lapointe was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last week as the U.S. attorney for South Florida, making him the first Haitian-American lawyer to serve in the region’s most powerful federal law enforcement position. Lapointe, a former U.S. Marine and ex-federal prosecutor who was raised in Haiti and Miami, was nominated in September by President Joe Biden to fill the position, which is responsible for directing about 250 prosecutors in a district extending from Key West to Fort Pierce.

Biden wants Cuban prisoners released: Biden issued a statement Friday calling on the Cuban government to release hundreds of political prisoners detained last year during a rare surge in protests across the country. The Biden administration conducted a comprehensive review of Cuba policy after the protests took place. Policy recommendations from that review, including allowing investment in private Cuban businesses and easing restrictions on remittances, are expected to be implemented through the end of the year.

Student loan confusion: Millions of borrowers were wrongly informed that their student loan relief was approved in an email mishap, federal officials say. Between Nov. 22-23, nine million student loan relief applicants received an email with the subject line “Your Student Loan Debt Relief Application Has Been Approved,” but that was wrong, Insider reported. Instead, the applicants were supposed to receive an email with the subject “Update on Student Loan Debt Relief” informing them only that their application for forgiveness had been received.

Court slams Florida judge in Trump case: In a scathing ruling, a federal appellate court in Atlanta found U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had no authority to appoint an independent expert to review documents seized from former President Donald Trump. A three-judge panel, all Republican appointees like Cannon, reversed her decision to name a “special master” because she had no authority to do so and effectively killed the case as legal experts consider a potential appeal unlikely to succeed.

Doral dishes Trump tax break: Doral city commissioners held an emergency meeting last week to comply with former President Donald Trump’s December deadline to accept his gift of surrendering development rights at his resort’s premiere golf course. The unanimous vote to approve Trump’s offer of a conservation easement for the 184-acre Blue Monster course was hailed by city leaders as a historic win for open space in a municipality short on parks. It also hands Trump a potential tax break while he continues to profit from the lucrative 18-hole course, touching on a hot topic for the 2024 presidential candidate days after a New York jury found his family business guilty of tax fraud.

Latvala’s $4 million retirement fund: What does a former state senator who has resigned in disgrace do with $4 million in unused political committee funds? He spends it, close to home. Among the uses Jack Latvala found: spending $2 million on 27 political committees, including nine that then hired his and his son’s campaign services firm, paying Chris Latvala’s firm $250,000 in monthly fees. And donating $565,000 to his son’s political committee.

Thank you for reading. Miami Herald Capitol Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas curates the Politics and Policy in the Sunshine State newsletter. We appreciate our readers, and if you have any ideas or suggestions, please drop me a note at meklas@miamiherald.com.

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