St. Petersburg Times

As the state's crisis over home insurance looms, Florida's congressional delegation Wednesday sought to help homeowners put cash aside before disaster strikes.

At a meeting on Capitol Hill with Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty to discuss potential federal solutions to state problems, a bipartisan group of Florida members of the U.S. House announced legislation they have proposed to create tax-free catastrophe savings accounts for costs not covered by homeowners insurance.

They also pledged to renew their push for a national catastrophe insurance fund, a safety net for major disasters. The idea has foundered for years, thanks to opposition from noncoastal states, but several members said Wednesday that Hurricane Katrina's monumental destruction on the Gulf Coast may win them some converts.

They intend to market the plan to Western and Midwestern lawmakers whose states often suffer catastrophic flooding, fires, tornadoes and drought.

"It seems quite apparent to me, and anybody else who is watching along, that there's no state that can go it alone," said Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, who has sponsored a bill with Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville.

"We cannot make the insurance company of last resort FEMA. . . . We have to come together on some type of national insurance."

Under their proposal, the fund would be financed primarily by state catastrophe insurance funds, like Florida's. It is aimed at subsidizing the costs to private insurers after major disasters, helping to control the nationally rising costs of home insurance.

McCarty said the idea is gaining ground among other state insurance commissioners, who recently met in Orlando, but they must convince Congress that "this is not a bailout for insurance companies . . . and that it's not just a Florida problem."

The Floridians may have better luck with a plan to create catastrophe savings accounts, sponsored by U.S. Reps. Tom Feeney and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. It would allow people to make pretax contributions, similar to health savings accounts, to a special fund in the event of a disaster.

The money could be used for insurance deductibles, uninsured losses, flood damage and improvements for future storms.

How much people could save would depend on their deductible, up to $15,000.

Catastrophe accounts were included in a larger bill last year, then cut for procedural reasons. Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, called Feeney last month to suggest he renew it.

The backing of Feeney, a conservative Republican from the Orlando area, and Wasserman Schultz, a liberal Democrat from Broward County, suggests the idea could win broad support. The two had more than a dozen co-sponsors when they filed the bill Wednesday afternoon.

"People would have literally a big rainy day fund for a big rainy day," Feeney said.