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No great surprise: Insurance worries us

By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published January 22, 2007

What do Rudy Giuliani, property insurance woes and Florida's flagging competitiveness have in common? They are top-of-mind topics among Tampa Bay business leaders heading into a slowing-but-growing 2007 economy.

So say the findings of our annual business outlook based on asking 25 questions this month to 131 area executives. The heart of that survey appears at left in James Thorner's story and charts. But that's not all we discovered.

Our survey found that Giuliani, Republican ex-mayor of New York made famous by 9/11's infamy, topped the list of candidates area business leaders would like to see run for president in 2008. He edged out Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., by a hair, who in turn led third choice Democratic Sen. Barack Obama by a hefty margin. Sorry, Hillary. You came in seventh, behind Newt Gingrich. Read more about this on 6D.

No big surprise: Property insurance - such concerns did not even register in 2000-to-2005 surveys, and ranked only sixth last year - became the Florida economy's 800-pound gorilla in this survey. State lawmakers have been meeting in special session to try to fix it.

Sixty percent said solving the property insurance crisis should be Gov. Charlie Crist's top priority. In fact, nearly a third surveyed identified property insurance as the "single most pressing problem" facing the area business community. Housing costs, in second place, was picked by only 13 percent.

And what's this about our state's fading competitiveness? When asked if Florida's business climate is becoming more or less competitive with other states, 33 percent said "less" - up from 13 percent last year. That's a big and rather cynical leap in just a year, but it was no doubt influenced by business' increasing sensitivity to our still-mediocre public education system, our troubling housing affordability gap and our out-of-whack insurance market.

We also asked for suggestions on how to assess property taxes more fairly. A third surveyed favored increasing the state's $25,000 homestead exemption, while a quarter liked capping tax revenue for local governments.

A decade ago in the Times annual survey, "education" ranked as the No. 1 business concern, according to 35 percent of those surveyed. This year, just 5 percent picked education.

That probably says little about the gains in education in the past 10 years. But it speaks volumes about the new crop of challenges confronting Tampa Bay's vastly bigger and ever-tougher business environment.

Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or (727)893-8405.

[Last modified January 21, 2007, 09:18:04]