So sayeth the Wall Street Journal (via the St Pete Times):

It isn’t easy to put one of the more well governed states on the path to fiscal ruin in a mere three months, but it seems Florida Governor Charlie Crist is exceptional. His campaign to socialize Florida’s insurance market has placed the Sunshine State one big hurricane away from financial disaster….Mr. Crist and his fellow Republicans had better hope that predictions of more frequent hurricanes are wrong. Because when they hit, and taxpayers discover there’s no such thing as free insurance, what could get blown away is their governing majority.

I’ll bet plenty of WSJ staffers have visited, but have they lived here? One of the more well governed states? Holy hades, Batman! Jeb makes George look like a pinko. Crist, a political moderate, looks like a reanimated Lenin in comparison.

Note to the WSJ: under the status quo (in the so called “more well governed” state), Florida was ALREADY one big hurricane away from financial disaster. Private companies were dropping homeowner’s insurance policy holders left and right, claiming financial losses… while rates went through the roof, and profits remained steady – buoyed by auto insurance profits (which conveniently are operated under different ledgers). Meanwhile, the state run safety net for homeowners insurance (“Citizens”) was required by statute to charge a certain percentage more than private carriers (to protect private carrier’s profits, not having to compete with the state).

The state was already stuck covering all of the worst risks, after private companies cherry-picked properties with the least risk. Is the state really worse off taking on more policies… some with less risk, to balance out the cost of the more risky ones?

I may be a little slow, but that sounds like pretty good business to me.