Gov. Charlie Crist has vetoed a bill that would have deregulated rates for some residential property insurance policies.

The bill (HB 1171) would have let homeowners pay higher, unregulated rates for insurance covering hurricanes, fires and other hazards from highly capitalized national companies.

In his veto message Wednesday, Crist wrote that the so-called ”Consumer Choice” bill ”actually gives the choice to a select group of property insurance companies.” It would have let them choose to sell unregulated policies only to customers who pose the lowest risk, Crist wrote.

Small Florida-based companies had opposed this bill because only the larger, national companies would have been allowed to offer the new insurance policy with deregulated rates, given the surplus requirements in the new law would have mandated.

This bill ”would have left a lot of companies unable to compete,” said Roger Desjadon, president and chief executive officier of Florida Peninsula Insurance.

Desjadon believes it wouldn’t have been good public policy because it would have deregulated activities for some companies but not all, “creating the potential of unleveling the playing field.”

Consumer groups around the state, such as FIRM in the Keys, had started to gear and urge Gov. Crist to veto this bill.

The bill did have its supporters such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, which saw the proposed law as a way of offering consumer a choice on whether or not they wanted to purchase a policy with higher rates.

Yet, one of the main features of the proposed law had been to create an insurance policy that would not have been surcharged by Citizens Property Insurance if the state-run insurer needed to cover a deficit. That provision was stripped from the bill before it was approved by the Florida Legislature in May.

Found here.