Janelle Irwin Taylor
Sen. Nick DiCeglie, like so many of his constituents in the Tampa Bay area, was one of thousands impacted by devastating flooding from Hurricane Helene in late September, then hit with a one-two punch just a couple weeks later when Hurricane Milton brought damaging winds and driving rain to the already battered region.
His experience is informing his priorities for the upcoming 2025 Legislative Session, with headaches he has experienced firsthand leaving him searching for answers not just for him, but for everyone.
“For me, everything changed when Hurricanes Helene and Milton came through Pinellas County and other parts of Florida,” he said. “I’m not the only legislator dealing with this and some of the very bureaucratic processes that are just lined with red tape.”
Fortunately for the Tampa Bay region, and other areas hard hit by either or both storms — which includes parts of the east coast where tornadoes spun off from Milton’s rain bands and brought devastation to several areas — DiCeglie is for the next two Sessions Chair of the Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development.
While those items don’t immediately scream “hurricane relief,” there is important work to be done on infrastructure. And with DiCeglie’s home Pinellas County being a peninsula on a peninsula, getting the area back into shape is a must for both tourism and economic development.
DiCeglie said he’s been in conversations with Senate colleagues about how to offer relief to Pinellas residents, and those in other hard hit areas.
One area where DiCeglie hopes to flex his leadership muscle is on permitting processes. Residents whose homes suffered damage are at the mercy of a long to-do list steeped in red tape. Rules from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) require substantial damage reports and adherence to the 50% rule, which prohibits improvements to a structure exceeding 50% of its market value unless the structure is improved to current flood regulation standards.
“We can maybe lay out some timelines, some reasonable expectations, create some predictability, so that every jurisdiction has to follow the same guidelines,” DiCeglie said about possible legislation.
That could include expanding on legislation earlier this year (SB 812) that set a framework for streamlined permitting processes with local governments aimed at expediting the permitting process.
But even with that now on the books, some people are still reporting long wait times to get the permits needed to make repairs to hurricane damage. That includes St. Pete City Council member Brandi Gabbard, who posted to Facebook that she waited more than seven hours at the city’s permitting department.
DiCeglie also hopes to identify ways the state can help people who qualify for financial assistance from FEMA to raise their homes to protect against future flooding.
“People have a hard time fronting the upfront costs,” DiCeglie said.
He’s been working with Treasure Island, for example, on a potential pilot program where the local government covers upfront costs.
“They get paid back. There’s really no risk,” he said.
And, DiCeglie added, it’s more important now than ever to ensure such mitigation is accomplished.
“This is not a once-in-a-100-year flood event anymore,” he said. “These larger concepts take a while to hone in, but beginning those conversations in earnest sooner rather than later is prudent.”
The storms also brought to the forefront issues with infrastructure in the Tampa Bay area and abroad.
“Let’s be honest, these infrastructure needs didn’t just come out of nowhere,” DiCeglie said, lamenting how “the can was kicked down the road.”
That makes it hard for some in the Legislature to get on board when they view it as providing a bailout to local governments that, had they acted sooner, wouldn’t be facing price tags on repairs and improvements that are quite so high.
“I am always willing to collaborate with the local leaders in my district, and if we can identify projects that make sense, and it’s fiscally sound, I’m willing to have those conversations,” he said.
And there’s another big issue related to hurricanes, one that lawmakers have been grappling with long before Helene and Milton: insurance.
“I do think that the reforms that we passed, we have some very good data coming back,” DiCeglie said, referencing sweeping changes to tort laws meant to stamp out frivolous lawsuits. The thought process was that by doing so, insurers would be able to pass cost savings to customers.
DiCeglie said there are positive signs that “the market is starting to stabilize, meaning that we have carriers that want to come in,” an important metric in driving insurance costs down because it would increase supply.
But DiCeglie said more work needs to be done on reinsurance, basically insurance coverage for insurance. It helps insurers cover reimbursements on very high claims, something that is exceedingly important in hurricane-prone Florida.
He said “there’s been talk about the CAT fund in relation to reinsurance,” a reference to the state’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.
“I’m open to having those conversations. If the domestic insurance carriers can purchase reinsurance cheaper than they have been and we can accommodate that through our CAT fund, that’s something we need to look into because that savings is going to be passed onto the consumer,” he said.
“It doesn’t have to be a huge reform package, it could just be a small change to create some stability in the market.”
High property insurance rates in Florida (in addition to high auto insurance rates) are part of a broader affordability issue, which DiCeglie also hopes to tackle.
“This wasn’t a slow process; this happened very quickly over the last couple of years, because we’ve had a lot of people come to this state,” he said.
But the issue, he said, is largely driven at the local level.
“We can collaborate with them and find ways to tweak things in the Legislature,” he said, though didn’t elaborate. And DiCeglie also is hopeful the incoming Donald Trump administration “will be able to deal with inflation,” which he said would also help with affordability challenges.
