MILTON — Santa Rosa County commissioners are concerned about a legislative bill that could significantly increase their insurance premiums — and those of every county and city in Florida.
A new bill has been proposed in the Florida House that would increase the sovereign immunity cap on liability claims paid by city and county governments to an individual from the current $200,000 limit to $1 million. The maximum incident claim, which is paid to multiple parties, would increase from $300,000 to $1.5 million.
“So it would be a five-fold increase in the liability that the county would have for simple negligence, an auto accident or a slip and fall,” said Santa Rosa County Commissioner Lane Lynchard at Monday’s commission meeting. “Interestingly, the bill does not apply to any claims against the state or state agencies.
“One thing to bear in mind: This increases our exposure and hence the exposure of our insurer 500 percent over what it is currently. If this passes, we can probably expect a significant increase in our annual insurance premium.”
The proposed bill, PCB SCCB 13-01, was passed through the House Select Committee on Claims Bills on March 21. A companion bill has not been submitted in the Florida Senate yet, but Lynchard said it was in the works and is expected to be filed in the next week.
The Florida Association of Counties and the Small County Coalition of Florida have both adopted positions against the bill.
“When I read this the other day, I thought, ‘Have they totally lost their mind?’ ” said Santa Rosa County Commissioner Don Salter. “What’s the motivation behind it? They excuse themselves from it. I thought we were all supposed to be working together to keep government down and taxes down. This bill will certainly put a lot of pressure on our budgets. It just didn’t make any sense.”
Commissioners on Monday directed county staff to draft a letter stating their opposition to the proposed bill for them to approve and sign at their meeting Thursday. The letter would then be sent to their local legislative delegation.
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.
