Bennett Takes on Insurance Commissioner

It would seem that Senator Mike Bennett, a Republican from Bradenton, has an issue with the Insurance Commissioner of Florida, Kevin McCarty. Bennett says that McCarty needs to resign as he is “duplicitous and untrustworthy” and is calling for his resignation or termination.

McCarty supposedly wrote a letter to Governor Charlie Crist asking him to veto a bill that would result in higher property insurance rates for consumers who are willing to pay more. According to Bennett, McCarty told him that he would not oppose the measure, nor would he ask Crist to veto the bill. As he did ask Crist to veto the bill, a bill that Bennett was sponsoring in the Senate, Bennett says that he can no longer be trusted to tell the truth.

He wrote a letter to Crist asking him to fire McCarty if he did not resign immediately. Crist’s spokesperson said that the situation was under review to see what happened, but that he did not have the power to fire McCarty on his own. The Florida cabinet has a say in who takes that position and if they get let go or not.

Much of this stems from the announcement that State Farm is not going to offer homeowner’s insurance but would still be offering auto insurance within the state. Others are arguing that they cannot offer auto insurance if they are not offering homeowner’s. The question has now become what to do if they are permitted to offer car insurance and not homeowners.

Florida state law says that if you have multiple lines of insurance, that you have to offer all of them within the state, or you can’t offer any of them. The company asked McCarty for a rate increase for homeowner’s insurance, and the state turned them down. So they announced that they would only be auto insurance and life insurance for now on.




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