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Politics

Kriseman decries tax, auto insurance ideas

The property tax proposal and change in PIP coverage anger the Democrat.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published August 5, 2007

State Rep. Rick Kriseman urged voters to reject a proposed constitutional amendment to change the way homestead exemptions are calculated.

"This is not a good plan," Kriseman said. "We had an opportunity to do better and we did not. That's what I'm angry about."

Kriseman said he was also angry about changes to the state's auto insurance laws, which eliminate the requirement that all drivers carry personal injury protection, or PIP, coverage. He predicted when the new law takes effect Oct. 1 that there will be between 4- and 8-million uninsured motorists on the highways.

"Most people don't know this or understand this," Kriseman said.

Kriseman said he's trying to persuade Gov. Charlie Crist to call a special session of the Legislature to remedy the situation.

The St. Petersburg Democrat made his comments to about 70 people at Wednesday's meeting of the Lealman Community Association.

"I was kind of pleasantly surprised that he was that forthright. It takes guts to be a new guy on the block and be able to vent the frustration without worrying about cashing in your membership to the club," said Ray Neri, president of the community association.

Neri said Kriseman was open about the fact that a small group controls the Legislature.

"I think he told it the way it was," Neri said. "These are big issues that require big debate, and there wasn't any."

Kriseman first talked about property taxes and the proposed constitutional amendment that would give many homeowners the choice of keeping their Save Our Homes protection against tax increases or opting for a new "super" homestead exemption. A vote is scheduled for Jan. 29.

The proposal is flawed, he said. The proposal would not provide relief to commercial-property owners, investors, those who live outside the state but own winter homes here, or tenants who see their rents spiraling ever higher.

"None of these groups get any benefit from this amendment," he said. Vote no, he said, and "make us go back and do it right ... do something that helps all of us, not some of us."

Kriseman suggested that a better fix to the property tax crisis would include eliminating the "highest and best use" formula for determining a property's value. Under highest and best use, land is valued at what it could be used for and not what's on it. That means a mom-and-pop motel on the beach could be taxed out of existence because the "highest and best use" of the land might be high-end condominiums.

Audience members gasped as Kriseman turned the topic to auto insurance by informing them that, as of Oct. 1, the state's requirement that motorists be insured will be dropped. PIP is the only mandatory auto insurance in Florida, and about 4-million drivers carry it and nothing else, he said. As of Oct. 1, he predicted that many, if not all, of those people will drop their insurance.

The effect will be to raise health insurance rates because people injured in accidents will not be able to rely on the other driver's insurance but will instead have to use their medical policies.

"That will be the only thing out there that pays for medical bills," he said.

Kriseman said the justification for changing the law was to stop "rampant fraud" in claims against PIP. But, he said, there were only 3,000 such cases filed in 2005-06, according to statistics from the state Department of Insurance. Of those, only 350 were prosecuted, and 225 people were convicted of fraud.

"To me, that's not rampant fraud," Kriseman said. "It's not about fraud. It's about money, and we all pay for it."

[Last modified August 4, 2007, 21:17:11]