Hillsborough County Prepares to Pitch Funding Plan for Rays

Hillsborough County negotiator Ken Hagan has been working alongside county officials to come up with a pitch for stadium funding in Port Ybor for Ray’s Stadium. The plan – every time a purchase is made in the area built for the Rays in Port Ybor; a portion will go towards funding the ballpark. According to Hagan, taxpayers would not be responsible for interest, debt cost, or operational costs.

Numbers have not yet been disclosed, but the idea currently being discussed is a special economic district that includes a stadium. Housing, parks, a museum, and a home base for law enforcement. Tourist taxes would also be on the table for funding.

Hillsborough should be making an offer within the next month. They are nearly ready to begin negotiations according to Hagan. While St. Petersburg has not confirmed the rumor, they have reportedly made a formal offer to the Ray’s already. A third-party report made public states construction would bring 4,500 jobs to Pinellas County with an average pay rate of $93,000 a year. The Tropicana redevelopment site would also help sell 31,000 hotel rooms and create 15,000 permanent jobs with an estimated half billion a year in spending.

Hillsborough County will likely partner with Darryl Shaw, to build on his Gas Worx property that is near Port Tampa but that is not finalized according to Hagan. The Rays/Hines won the right to redevelop the Gas Plant District (Tropicana Field is located within the district) back in January, but the Rays have yet to commit to staying in St. Petersburg – leaving many with questions as to what will happen with the district should the Rays choose to leave St. Petersburg.

Source: Fox13

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Governor DeSantis signs bill aimed at lessening the amount of policies at Citizens Property Insurance

By cliggittvaluation • 14 May, 2024

HB 1503 was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday, along with a provision. The bill says that lightly regulated insurance companies will be able to soon take over policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Under the bill, the insurer must have an A-rating by the AM Best Rating Agency and they must have OIR approval for their takeout plan. Citizens’ properties that have a homestead exemption will not be available for takeover by surplus line carriers. Surplus lines are insurers that have not been admitted to the state market. Regulation does not approve their rates, and dispute over a claim with a surplus carrier must take place in a court outside of Florida. Despite being out-of-state insurers, surplus lines are still subject to Florida regulatory oversight in some areas. Surplus carriers will insure risker and more expensive homes that the domestic market won’t cover. Domestic carriers in the state have already been allowed to take over policies from Citizens once OIR approves. Customers at Citizens must opt out of the process if they do not want to join the new company, but the law states Citizens’ customers have to go to the private market if they are offered a rate that is within 20% of what Citizens’ rate is. Citizens has around 1.19 million policies (as reported by data on their website), and lawmakers have been working to reduce the number of polices under Citizens to reduce the risk of assessments of homeowners’ policies in the event a major hurricane or series of storms wiped Citizens’ out of their ability to pay claims. Citizens Insurance has seen policy counts jump in recent years as the private market has struggled. Thousands of homeowners have been left to find last minute coverage when their policy holder has gone bust or imposed large rate hikes. In 2021, Citizens had just over 540,000 policies – and that number has more than doubled.