Fact Check: Where candidates Donalds and Jolly stand on property insurance

Polls consistently show that affordability is Florida voters’ biggest concern leading into the November election, and the candidates for governor are pitching plans they say will bring down property insurance costs.

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Under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ leadership, Florida lawmakers have made it harder to sue insurance companies in an effort to attract more providers back into the state to offer policies, despite the high storm risks. Republican Byron Donalds says his proposal will force companies to compete with each other, and Democrat David Jolly says his plan will make Florida a less risky market.

Issue: Property insurance

Byron Donalds, Republican nominee

Donalds wants to keep in place DeSantis’ sweeping lawsuit reforms, and create a new comparison tool called the “Insurer Scorecard” that his campaign describes as a “first step” to increasing accountability for insurance companies and bringing down premiums.

“What people need is transparency, not just around price, but around performance,” he told the Miami Herald.

The state’s Office of Insurance Regulation already operates a rate comparison tool. Donalds’ campaign has argued that his plan is a “game changer” because he’s also proposing new legislation standardizing companies’ reporting requirements on things like claim denial rates and payment delivery times.

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David Jolly, Democratic nominee

Jolly’s plan to bring down insurance costs is to create a new statewide catastrophe fund. He’s arguing that private insurers will see Florida as less risky if there is a built-in state safety net, and will in turn offer homeowners lower rates.

“We have denied climate science for too long,” he told the Herald. “The cost of covering natural disasters is too high, and as a result, look who is not in Florida covering these properties: Allstate, State Farm, Geico.”

He plans to either tax insurance companies, tourists or certain real estate transactions to fund the effort.

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