Latest news with #SB114
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers hope to build on insurance research at Florida State University
Coast Guard crew members search flooded Keaton Beach for survivors of Hurricane Helene. The flooding spread infectious Vibrio bacteria. (Photo via USCG) The Florida Senate approved an institute at Florida State University to research the insurance market during a time when hurricanes have battered the state and insurance regulators have been questioned under oath by the House. Sen. Jay Trumbull, a Panhandle Republican, is the sponsor for SB 114, a bill that would create the Center for Excellence in Insurance and Risk Management at Florida State University. 'Going back 20-plus years ago, Florida looked at insurance very differently pre-Andrew,' Trumbull said in March during the bill's first committee stop. 'Post-Andrew, we started to take a much different look at how we needed to plan forward and operate.' Hurricane Andrew inflicted an estimated $26 billion in damage in 1992 when it hit Miami-Dade County. More than 63,500 homes were destroyed and 124,000 were damaged while 65 people were killed, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The bill would moves the Hurricane Loss Projection Model from Florida International University to FSU. Trumbull said the bill is meant to make the state's measurement and management of insurance more 'robust.' It would help legislators in developing and evaluating 'evidence-based policy options and making recommendations related to insurance and risk management,' according to the bill text. Florida lawmakers have convened for special sessions regarding insurance, developed stricter building codes, and run election campaigns based on insurance issues. The center would address all lines of insurance and be responsible for researching inquiries from the House, Senate, or Office of Insurance Regulation. Insurance regulators were questioned by the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee earlier this session following a Tampa Bay Times story detailing how insurance companies claimed financial ruin while sending billions to affiliated companies. While FIU would lose the loss model, Trumbull said, it is owned by the Office of Insurance Regulation, not the university. The center would be located in the FSU College of Business and Department of Risk Management. FSU has a Risk Management and Insurance Center that studies the market, housing prices, homeowners' insurance, and catastrophe risk. The bill passed both its committee assignments in the Senate unanimously. Its companion in the House, HB 1097, has been passed by three committees and now is before the Commerce Committee. The Senate budget proposes $3 million for the loss model. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Yahoo
Tighter control of apartment master keys moves forward in ‘Miya's Law'
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Controls on access to apartment complex master keys got even tighter Thursday as lawmakers passed changes to a bill requiring criminal background checks for employees with access to the keys. 'Miya's Law,' named for a 19-year-old Florida woman who was killed by an apartment maintenance worker in 2021, was passed by the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor. Senate Bill 114 (SB114) initially applied to complexes with 200 or more apartments. An amendment brought that down to 100 units as the bill was approved in a work session Thursday. The bill also requires landlords to keep a log to account for the issuance and return of each key, along with written policies and procedures regarding their use. During a bill hearing on Monday, Miya Marcano's mother and father urged Nevada lawmakers to make Nevada the third state to pass legislation that could have saved their daughter. Florida and Virginia already have similar laws. 'What happened to Miya is not just my personal tragedy. It's a public safety failure,' Miya's mother, Yma Scarbriel, said. 'No parent should have to go through what we went through. No family should have to bury their child because basic housing protections were not in place.' Her father, Marlon Marcano, said, 'Let Miya's name represent action, not tragedy.' The man who killed Miya had a criminal conviction involving the detonation of a bomb at a school, according to a representative of the Miya Marcano Foundation. Lawmakers were reminded of a similar case in Nevada. In 1982, an 18-year-old student in Carson City was found dead in her apartment, a victim of strangulation. The case went unresolved until a DNA match in 1999 connected her death to David Mitchell, who worked at her apartment complex. Sheila Jo Harris was the reigning Miss Douglas County when she was killed. She had moved from Gardnerville to Carson City to be closer to school. Harris was killed five days after she moved in. SB114, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Julie Pazina, now advances to the full Senate for consideration. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
