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Every car, boat, and homeowner in Florida is still paying for the hurricanes of 2004-2005 and will be for at least the next five years. The cost comes in the form of an assessment on your policy, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the assessments could get more

This 2700 dollar homeowners policy has an additional 76 dollars on it to cover the state’s losses from the 2004-2005 storm season.

On Thursday, Governor Rick Scott and the State Cabinet will be told the state run insurer of last resort, Citizens, is in better shape than it’s ever been. The company can weather 17 billion in losses. But a big storm hitting Palm Beach could cost the company up to 56 Billion. In St. Petersburg, the Citizens exposure is 39 billion.

“You hear horror stories of, instead of the three percent assessment that we’re paying right now from ’04 and ’05, to 20 to 30 percent a year for 20 or 30 years,” Sam Miller with the Florida Insurance Council said.

This homeowner got socked with a 34 percent rate increase by a private insurance company this year. While their neighbor, who’s with Citizens, will pay less than 10 percent more.

State lawmakers balked this year at raising Citizens rates more than the 10 percent already allowed by law.

Private insurers say part of the problem is that because Citizens rates were frozen for two years, the last resort company is actually cheaper than private insurers.

“Citizens is probably writing business that private insurers would write if they could compete with Citizens,” Miller said.

And because Citizens is growing by 20 percent  a year, the risk of increased assessments to everyone in Florida are growing higher each year.