Florida’s hurricane ‘Cat Fund’ not on as solid ground as some say

The rosy picture laid out recently about the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund’s status isn’t quite so rosy once you look at the facts and consider the financial damage a storm would do to our state given our reliance on
government mechanisms and public debt rather than private capital.

The managers of the Cat Fund have done an able job in the context of a challenging statutory mandatory mandate. And the fund’s own managers have warned us that the Cat Fund is not as “flush with cash” as some might think, leaving all Floridians, including business owners and homeowners, financially vulnerable this hurricane season.

Thanks to a dollop of good luck, the fund has indeed built up more cash assets than it has had in past years, but the balance of mammoth obligations would be met by issuing new bonds — debt that all Floridians will wind up
paying through “hurricane taxes” levied as assessments on policies statewide.

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