Help choose Letter of the Month
Letters to the editor offer a significant contribution to the discussion of public policy and life in Tampa Bay. To recognize some of that work by our most engaged readers, the Times will select a letter of the month and the writers will be recognized at the end of the year.
Help us choose from the nominations for letter of the month for May by visiting the website listed below by Thursday. Read through the three letters and vote on the ballot at the bottom of the web page. We will choose the finalists each month based on relevance on topical issues, persuasiveness and writing style. The writer's opinion does not need to match the editorial board's opinion on the issue to be nominated. But clarity of thinking, brevity and a sense of humor certainly help.
To see the three May nominees and vote, go to www.tampabay.com/opinion.
Citations to curb arrest of juveniles | May 26
Reform juvenile record laws
Civil citations are effective in preventing youth from becoming involved in the juvenile justice system, and thereby preventing arrest records from derailing youths' future military service, employment or educational opportunities.
Allowing law enforcement officers expanded discretion to issue more civil citations to youths committing misdemeanors is the right thing to do. But there is a potential for unintended consequences from this excellent legislation. The same crime could result in a child being issued a civil citation or being arrested based purely on the child's location.
Florida also needs to update and improve statutes on the confidentiality and expunction of juvenile records. Contrary to popular belief, juvenile arrest records in Florida aren't kept confidential or expunged once a child becomes an adult.
For tens of thousands of young people, outsider access to their records can block them from the transition into lives as productive adults.
Florida has done a good thing by expanding the issuance of civil citations. Without also updating Florida's juvenile records laws, however, young people will continue to be punished well into adulthood for youth misbehaviors.
Roy Miller, president, the Children's Campaign, Tallahassee
Elia lands job in N.Y. | May 27
The good ones get away
Does Hillsborough County discharge our leaders because they are too good? MaryEllen Elia has been named New York state education commissioner. She joins another former leader, Tampa airport CEO Louis Miller, who went on to become director of Atlanta's airport. What's going on here? We let them go and others appreciate their talents.
Jay Hall, Tampa
Would insurers survive storm? | May 24, Robert Trigaux column
Insurers ready for disaster
The conclusions reached by your columnist about Florida-based home insurers' ability to pay claims in the event our state is hit by one or more storms in a single season are simply not true.
Florida domestic insurers currently have a combined surplus of approximately $2.4 billion and carry first-event catastrophe reinsurance of approximately $20 billion. That translates into a true total claims-paying ability for a catastrophic first event in excess of $22 billion. Coverage for second and subsequent events has also been purchased.
If a hurricane roughly the size of Hurricane Andrew were to hit Florida, insured losses would total about $10 billion. Because of their reinsurance resources, Florida-based insurers could pay all claims and have sufficient reinsurance to meet claims from a second and third Andrew-sized storm in the same year.
Would that scenario deplete Florida companies and their reinsurers, which provide back-up insurance? No. The reinsurers have an aggregate surplus (net worth) of approximately $570 billion. Neither they nor Florida-based companies would be in danger of insolvency. Seen in this way, Florida's home insurers have never been in a stronger position.
Your columnist relied on the Weiss Ratings firm, which is not recognized as an approved ratings agency by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Unfortunately, Weiss' analysis does not include relevant data or an apparent understanding of reinsurance. Ignoring this component of financial strength does not tell the whole story.
The truth is that while the large, national carriers fled the state after the storms of 2004-05, the domestic companies are the ones that have been here working to fix Florida's insurance market. Through the remarkable cooperation of the private sector, the Legislature and Office of Insurance Regulation, the homeowners insurance market bloomed in what had become a desert. Florida insurers are heavily capitalized and well-reinsured, as reviewed by Demotech Inc., which has been laser-focused on analyzing and rating many of the state's domestic insurers since 1996. Demotech recently cited nine "safeguards in place today that may not have existed years ago" that have significantly improved the sustainability of Florida-based insurers.
Florida homeowners can be confident that their insurers will be there for them in the event the state experiences one or more storms in 2015.
William Stander, executive director, Florida Property & Casualty Association, Tallahassee