Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Monday, Dec. 17

Click on a headline to read the complete story:

 

SBA Reports Local Government Investment Pool’s First Net-Positive Deposit Day Since Reopening

Increase in fund’s ending balance reflects improving confidence of local governments

State Board of Administration (SBA) Interim Executive Director Bob Milligan today reported that the Local Government Investment Pool (LGIP) has recorded its first net-positive deposit day since reopening December 6, 2007.

 

Governors Crist, Perdue And Riley Agree To New Water Flow Schedule

Florida, Georgia and Alabama Governors Charlie Crist, Sonny Perdue, Bob Riley and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today agreed upon a revised schedule to address the short- and long-term needs of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) and Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) river basins.

 

Stop the insurance rip-off

Politicians owned by companies they won’t regulate

Just like a recurring bad dream, we read how the hurting insurance companies of Florida are struggling with another year of billion-dollar profits. It’s getting too hard to shed any more tears for them.

 

Citizens grilled over iffy holdings

As Florida tries to restore calm to the state’s investments for local governments, the same troubled securities lurk in the state’s own funds, particularly those used to pay hurricane claims.

 

Kingsway Appoints W. Shaun Jackson As President And CEO

Kingsway Financial Services Inc. announced today that its founder William G. Star is retiring from his position as president and chief executive officer, effective December 31, 2007. Mr. Star will remain as Chair of the Board. Shaun Jackson, currently executive vice-president and chief financial officer, has been appointed as Mr. Star’s successor.

 

Reforms have been successful

In 2003, the Florida Legislature overhauled the state’s workers compensation system to control skyrocketing costs and the decreased availability of insurance to pay for injured workers’ medical bills. 

 

Unstable investments back hurricane funds

The same troubled securities that sent local governments running to cash out of state investments funds are lurking in the state’s own funds – particularly those used to pay hurricane claims.

 

Sink gets pat on back for tax break on grants

Insurance companies have sniped that Florida officials are too focused on reducing property-insurance costs with little regard for the risk the companies take, but there is one Florida elected official who has earned insurers’ love.

 

General’s new assignment

For years, Phil Lewis was on every “blue-ribbon” commission to study state government. The former Florida Senate president from West Palm Beach is a Democrat whom Republicans respect, and he still knows more about state government than some legislators.

 

Our position: Secrecy was big part of problem with state investment fund

The posse of auditors digging into the state’s troubled investments ought to start here: Why was there an impenetrable shroud of secrecy surrounding the investment of state pensions and local tax dollars?

 

Businesses rip trade of property tax cuts for taxing services

Business interests Friday ripped a proposal that would expand Florida’s sales tax to many services and goods now excluded or exempt even though it also would cut property taxes, including their own, buy about 40 percent.

 

Tax Reform Commission Faces Same Old Battles

The battle lines have been drawn once again on the future of Florida’s sales tax system, and they look very familiar.

 

Crist’s rookie year

It’s been a busy first year for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.He doesn’t have the big trophies some of his predecessors bagged in their rookie seasons as the head honcho in Tallahassee, nothing like Gov. Reubin Askew’s corporate income tax or Gov. Jeb Bush’s ‘A-Plus’ education plan.

 

Illegal workers on state agenda

In the two years since immigration reform legislation stalled in Congress, many states have passed their own laws targeting illegal immigrants.

 

Survey says Florida losing luster

The downturn in the economy, spiking property taxes,, the rising cost of living and aggravations associated with population growth have Floridians feeling worse about their state than they did a year ago, a Mason-Dixon survey released Friday by Leadership Florida shows.

 

Letter to the Editor:  Gray’s forecasts cost Florida homeowners

So the vaunted Dr. William Gray releases his 2008 tropical cyclone forecast to much scoffing and humor. What has been missed is that one industry takes Gray’s little guessing game seriously … and to the bank.

 

Bank won’t back down on insurance

Q: Action Line: For more than a year, I’ve been trying to get private mortgage insurance removed from the townhouse I co-own with my son in Lake Worth; but Chase is giving me the runaround. I have e-mailed, written and called and have been told it will be ”sending” me information, but I never get it.

 

Chemists to put price on oil spill’s harm to wildlife

The bodies of the birds, seals and raccoons that washed up onto bay beaches after the Cosco Busan spill were long ago packed up and stored in state-owned freezers.

 

IRS settles with Kid-Care founders

The Internal Revenue Service has settled a claim against the founders of Houston’s Kid-Care for about $1,000 – a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott claimed the couple had stolen from the charity.

 

Aon Corp. sells 2 insurance units in separate deals for $2.75B; proceeds go to share buyback

Aon Corp. is selling two insurance units for $2.75 billion in separate cash deals and will ramp up its share buyback program, the company said Monday.

 

Brown & Brown buys Pennsylvania agency

Brown & Brown has acquired Curzi Insurance Agency Inc. of Easton, Pa., according to Thomas E. Riley, regional president.Curzi Insurance Agency, owned by Joseph L. Curzi III, is a retail insurance agency that sells general commercial property and casualty insurance throughout Pennsylvania and surrounding states.

 

Moody’s warns on ratings of four bond insurers

Credit analysts warned on Monday that if downgraded some specialist bond insurers it could have far-reaching impact on financial markets.

 

‘Katrina cottages’ anger local Miss. Gulf Coast residents

When a New York designer came up with a plan for a tiny cottage that could offer permanent shelter for Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi officials pressed hard for federal funding.