Fla. CFO Candidates Have Feisty Debate on Insurance, Spending

Democrat Alex Sink joked after participating in a chief financial office candidates forum with Republicans Tom Lee and Randy Johnson that she wanted to crawl under the table during the event in Orlando, Fla.

Not that she embarrassed herself, but she was seated between Johnson, a state representative, and Lee, the Senate president, as they lobbed attacks at each other during the hour-long forum that including lengthy discussion of state spending and quickly rising insurance costs.

For a race that’s not getting much attention, the candidates provided some excitement during the discussion hosted by the Orlando Tiger Bay Club. Johnson questioned Lee’s leadership in the Senate and said an insurance bill he worked on was “an embarrassment.” Lee said Johnson was simply making shallow, politically motivated remarks.

Then there was Sink, the former president of Bank of America’s Florida operations, who more or less was able to talk about her experience and positions without being challenged.

Homeowners insurance was the hottest topic, with Johnson and Sink criticizing the Legislature for waiting until the last hour of the annual 60-day session to pass a bill attempting to entice insurance companies to Florida. The measure has been widely criticized since its passage.

“The bill is unacceptable and it’s frankly an embarrassment,” said Johnson. “What’s in that bill is appalling. It was written by insurance companies for insurance companies.”

Lee defended the legislation, saying he, Gov. Jeb Bush, House Speaker Allan Bense and legislative leaders spent an extraordinary amount of time working on it. He said it will help the state-created Citizen’s Property Insurance reduce the number of policies it carries by attracting private insurance to Florida.

“It is probably the toughest issue that we’ve had to deal with in the Legislature,” Lee said. “This piece of legislation was responsible, although it wasn’t a panacea.”

He also pointed out Johnson didn’t get involved in the legislation.

“Senator Lee is correct: I was not part of this secret handshake, secret squirrel business going on in Tallahassee. And honestly, I think our party is going to have some explaining to do,” Johnson said.
He then said his answer to the insurance problem was giving the insurance companies some “tough love.”

“If you want to sell car insurance, if you want to sell life insurance and make billions of dollars, than you get to stick with us through the tough times. And if you don’t want to do that, then take all of your products and go sell them somewhere else,” Johnson said.
Lee and Sink immediately discounted the idea.

“It’s just not practical,” Sink said.

Some insurance companies only sell life policies, and the state would be a position of turning them away because they don’t sell property insurance. She added that New Jersey took a similar approach to get companies to sell auto insurance.

“And guess what? The insurers left the state and made the crisis worse,” she said.

Johnson’s approach would likely violate the constitution, Lee said.

“That solution sounds really good, and I know if you’re irritated, to hear what you want to hear, that may appeal to you,” Lee said. “This, frankly, is one of the shallow solutions that we give to this problem. It makes better politics than it does economics.”

When asked about the state’s “rainy day” fund, Johnson took another shot at Lee.

Lee said the state hasn’t set aside enough money for future needs, though he did praise lawmakers and the governor for setting aside $1.5 billion.

“I don’t think we have reached the threshold yet where we can honestly say that we are in the position, given some catastrophic event here in this state, that we have enough resources to stabilize our economy,” Lee said.

“That sounds to me like more of a spokesman for government than it does a representative of the people,” Johnson said, before accusing Lee of blocking tax cuts proposed by Gov. Jeb Bush while helping shape the state’s $71.3 billion budget.

He also said Lee refused to use all the money available in an affordable housing trust fund for affordable housing programs.

“I wish I had as much influence and power over the outcome of things in Tallahassee as Rep. Johnson gives me credit for having. I’m just one of the handful of players in the process that’s trying to do what’s right for Florida. We have tough decisions to make and it’s easy to sit in the back and lob hand grenades at leadership,” Lee said, before pausing and turning to Johnson.

“Did you vote against the budget?” Lee asked Johnson.

“No I didn’t,” Johnson replied.