Today's issues of homeowners' insurance and taxes are important, talked about incessantly and affect every home owner and new home buyer.

Apparently, however, there are two entities that are affected less by these matters -- or not at all. Communities, for example, benefit from the sharply increased assessments, but seem unwilling to modify the millage rates. They just rake in, and spend, more cash. I am sure that if property values were to fall at anything like the rate at which they have increased, we could expect the tax rates to rise.

Then there are the insurance companies, cherry-picking the policies they are willing to issue and the properties that they are willing to insure. Granted, in the last couple of years we have witnessed particularly destructive weather, which in turn has caused significant losses -- but what about the prior, quieter times, when insurance companies raked in profits?

Now let us consider Citizens Property Insurance Corp.'s Sept. 14 decision. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's front-page report, the insurer's officials "decided" that "All Floridians who pay homeowner insurance premiums will (have to pay) a one-time charge" to cover Citizens' 2005 deficit. Why should Citizens' policyholders not make up a deficit, if indeed state officials allowed such a surcharge or assessment?

Let me suggest a variation on this theme. Let us say that Ford Motor Co., for example, which has been running at a loss for some time now, in spite of many years of huge profits, decides to adopt the same idea. What if it was "decided" that 2005 buyers of cars manufactured by GM, Nissan, BMW, Chrysler, etc., should have to pay a "one-time charge" to cover Ford's losses? Sounds fair, right? Corporations and their stockholders enjoy the good years, while everyone else pays for the bad.

No, it is neither fair nor right, and sounds just as stupid when applied to Ford as when applied to Citizens. When are Florida's legislators going to have the guts to address these insurance and tax issues, stop talking endlessly about them, and enact some meaningful, pro-citizen legislation?

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Malcolm Lauder
Boca Raton

Copyright 2006, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive Inc.