The word “affordability” is on the lips of every candidate, cable news pundit, and voter. This is as it should be. Because in the U.S., the wealth gap continues to widen under both Republican and Democratic governance, while costs of essentials are increasing. More Americans are unable to afford the basics – housing, food, medical care, education, transportation.
And the word “corruption” has now been added to the conversation. Americans are seeing in real time the corruption in our local, state and federal governments that is causing the affordability crisis. MAGA Republicans have passed legislation ending the use of our tax dollars to fund affordable health care for millions of Americans, diverting those tax dollars to fund Trump’s vanity projects, and add to the wealth of his family and friends
It is the same here in Florida. Floridians saw Gov. Ron DeSantis divert more than $35 million in taxpayer funds to defeat two 2024 ballot amendments he opposed, using dollars that were intended to assist needy Floridians, including children. Instead, it paid for political consultants, lawyers and thousands of advertisements to help DeSantis and Republicans win at the ballot box.
The affordability crisis is largely caused by corruption in our campaign finance system. Republicans are saying “don’t believe your lying eyes”, and many voters are now seeing the corruption happen in real time.
As the affordability crisis has worsened, more Americans blame both political parties for their growing economic insecurity because inflation and the wealth gap have increased regardless of which party is in power.
That truth has caused a huge electoral shift. The largest percentage of American voters now identify with neither party, which means that the largest U.S. voting block is independent voters. That is our challenge as Democrats.
It is critical that Democratic candidates answer that challenge; engage with voters who live in traditionally underserved communities, referred to as Environmental Justice communities. It is those historically Democratic voters who live in those communities that feel abandoned by the Democratic party. These are largely black or hispanic, low and moderate income communities that are the first to incur significant flooding and toxic waste dumping, yet the first to be unable to obtain homeowner’s insurance, FEMA assistance, or any governmental help.
For all Floridians, environmental issues affect every aspect of affordability. Our goal here is to discuss those issues and policies, and make sure that every candidate learns how voters are actually affected, and once elected, understand what policies they can promote to truly represent all of their constituents.
Topics:
- Affordable Housing
a. Unaffordable or unavailable homeowners insurance
b. Inflated utility rates
c. Passing the cost of overdevelopment and urban sprawl off onto Floridians - Hyperscale A.I. data centers
- Transportation
1. Affordable Housing
Florida is in an affordable housing crisis. Low and moderate income families, often black and brown families, for decades have lived in housing that is neither safe nor sanitary. Governments and homeowners insurance blocked resources for those communities that were necessary to upgrade housing conditions. The result is a lower market value of homes in these communities that affects the ability of these families to build wealth.
And now, the widening affordability housing crisis has expanded into working and middle class families, retired Floridians, and young people just starting their adult lives.
Much of that expansion is due to the huge increase in the cost of homeowner’s insurance, escalating transportation and utility costs, and increasing number of catastrophic and costly climate disasters.
Thanks to our corrupt campaign finance system, special interests are able to pick their candidates, fund their campaigns, and control the legislative and administrative policies that drive our energy, land use and environmental policies. It is those policies that are the cause of the affordability crisis we are experiencing.
a. Unaffordable, or Unavailable Homeowner’s Insurance.
Insurance companies cannot insure homes that are uninsurable. The one legitimate reason that is causing so many Florida homes to be uninsurable, is the increasing number and cost of climate disasters due to unabated greenhouse gas emissions, and failure to transition to clean energy. FEMA, the Red Cross, the Army Corps of Engineers, and homeowner’s insurance were set up to handle natural disasters. Climate disasters bring a level of destruction not contemplated before. That is particularly true for homeowner’s insurance, and why insurance is unable to handle these disasters.
Reinsurance companies are the entities that insure homeowners insurance companies when a disaster happens that companies are unable to cover. Several years ago, reinsurance companies fled the state of Florida. For insurance companies to remain in Florida, they would have to increase our rates substantially to cover the loss that reinsurance companies covered. The other option is to leave Florida altogether.. And that is what has happened.
There is an illegitimate reason homes have been determined to be uninsurable, and that is the racist practice of redlining. That practice is the same justification used by FEMA and Army Corps of Engineers to deny disaster recovery funding to low income and black and brown communities.
It is the same reason many local governments deny permits to these homeowners to be able to repair their homes after a climate disaster. They all base recovery funding on the deflated market value of homes because they are located in black and brown neighborhoods. How to fix that legislatively and administratively will be covered in the section on Environmental Justice.
Democratic candidates would do well to campaign in EJ communities and learn how at every level of government, EJ communities have been denied help for flooding and pollution. Candidates should knock on doors, and ask these residents about what they need from the government, and listen. Then commit to governing in ways that address the issues in Environmental Justice communities, so that those residents are able to live in their communities safely and affordably.
For all homeowners, as climate disasters caused an increasing number of costly claims, many companies simply stopped paying legitimate claims, or gave ridiculously low settlement offers, or cancelled policies Many consumers contracted with roofing companies, who hired lawyers to fight the claims; some policy-holders hired independent adjusters to advocate for them. These independent advocates often inflated the claims, making consumers susceptible to insurance company claims of fraud.
Rather than address the reason for the collapse of homeowner’s insurance, which is climate change and climate disasters, the insurance industry lobbied their lawmakers to blame consumer corruption. They then made statutory changes to the insurance contract. These changes weakened the requirements of what these policies had to cover, ended the ability of policy holders to use independent advocates, and made it too costly to hire lawyers to enforce a now very weak insurance contract.
Further, policy holders cannot seek help with the agency that is set up to regulate the insurance industry, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR). That is because of corruption in the Governor’s office. The governor has the power to appoint the leadership and staff in that office, and does so by appointing people with ties to the insurance industry. That agency should be regulating on behalf of consumers, not on behalf of the insurance industry.
To get there, we need to end the corrupt campaign finance system, and make it easier to elect people who will be free to commit to:
- enact policies that transition us from energy sources that emit greenhouse gases, to clean energy sources.
- create a state and national climate disaster relief and recovery plan that provides tax funding to help with recovery from climate disasters, freeing up insurance policies to be able to cover remaining insurable events.
- Create legislation that strengthens consumer protections in the insurance contract, including access to the courts and the OIR to enforce the contract, as well as guidelines to ensure that OIR agency appointments are free from conflicts of interest, and strengthen the ability of the agency to enforce consumer protections.
b. Inflated Utility Rates
Floridians pay some of the highest utility bills in the country. Increasingly inexpensive clean energy is readily available in the Sunshine State, yet powerful utility companies control state energy policy through campaign donations, giving them outsized influence on Republican state legislators, the PSC, and the governor. Florida law actually prohibits enacting legislation based upon climate change, with the result that Florida is not transitioning to clean, cheaper energy.
The Florida governor has appointment power over who sits on the Public Service Commission which determines utility rates and energy policy. Under Republican governors, PSC appointments have close ties to utilities or the political establishment, with a result that rates and energy policy is set in the interests of Florida Power & Light (FPL), Duke Energy Florida, and Tampa Electric (TECO).
Florida PSC makes utility rates and policy decisions behind closed doors, with no meaningful citizen nor public input. PSC policy and regulations make it difficult and expensive for Floridians to generate their own solar power, and utilities are granted monopolistic control over the use of solar energy.
A result of how PSC functions under DeSantis: (8) Ron DeSantis PAC took $250,000 from Florida Power & Light after record-setting rate hike.
Florida legislation preempts local governments from pursuing clean energy solutions, and discourages or prohibits expanded research, development, and aggressive deployment of renewable energy that powers homes, transportation, and industry.
State and federal policies incentivize the increased use of energy by promoting a consumption driven economy based upon growth and profit, incentivizes the use of fossil fuel energy, and blocks the use of clean energy sources.
The energy sources we use are costly. Natural gas powers most of Florida’s electricity, which means that when global gas prices rise, utilities pass that cost directly to customers. Because Florida doesn’t produce fossil fuels locally, we are exposed toglobal market swings. State legislative and PSC policies incentivize more expensive and environmentally destructive fossil fuel production, over cheaper, cleaner energy resources such as wind and solar.
Thanks to climate change making our climate way hotter, we need more energy to keep us cool and safe from extreme heat. Increasingly damaging extreme storms wreak havoc on infrastructure, forcing utilities to spend billions on repairs and “storm hardening”. And those costs get added into consumer bills.
Florida’s rapid population growth strains the grid, requiring new generation and transmission capacity. Add to that infrastructure upgrades and resilience improvements and grid modernization: all are recovered through higher utility rates.
Federal clean energy tax credits (e.g., from the Inflation Reduction Act) help lower upfront costs, but those incentives have been cut by the Trump administration. Federal agencies are now prohibited from setting or enforcing greenhouse gas emission standards. The Clean Air Act is under attack. Federal energy policy mirrors Florida state policy, and is based upon climate denial, and doubling down on fossil fuel energy sources.
A Democratic Florida Governor can appoint PSC commissioners free from conflicts of interest, who will set rates and enact policy with consumer input and during open meetings. PSC policy must end fossil fuel incentives and subsidies, and incentivize clean, cheaper energy sources.
Democratic state legislators can pass legislation that prioritizes addressing climate change, resiliency and transitioning to clean energy. Policies that lessen the damage from climate disasters, make it profitable for insurance companies to return to Florida, and lower their rates.
State policy should incentivize Floridian’s ability to own the energy that they create by installing and generating their own solar power, require utility companies to transition to cheaper, cleaner energy sources, then pass the savings on to consumers, not to investors.
Federal policy makers should restore and enhance the Biden climate initiatives, which includes substantial help to Environmental Justice communities to transition to clean, less expensive energy, restore homes to energy efficiency, climate resiliency, and climate disaster protections,
c. Passing the cost of overdevelopment and urban sprawl onto consumers.
In Florida, the infrastructure costs of development are passed on to local governments, and on to consumers. Developers are supposed to pay the costs of expanding infrastructure necessary to serve the development, including roads, sewer, water and electricity. The Florida mantra is “growth pays for growth”. These fees assessed against developers are called “impact fees”.
There are a number of ways that Republican local and state policy have gotten around paying for growth. Governments allow developers to pass on the cost of infrastructure to new homebuyers, which increases the cost of that home, affecting affordability for home buyers.
Local governments do that by anticipating future growth, begin building the infrastructure, even though no developments are being proposed, then float bonds to pay for infrastructure expansion. Counties then pay the debt on those bonds, by increasing utility rates. They justify that increase by claiming those fees go to pay to upgrade existing infrastructure. A nifty way to get around billing developers for the cost of infrastructure.
Another insidious way is when developers promise to build affordable housing if allowed to increase the number of homes being built, but fail to deliver on their promise. The local government authorizes the development plans. The developer fails to actually produce the promised affordable housing. Local governments fail to enforce the promise. Developers increase density and therefore, their profits, but produce no affordable housing.
This is the strategy of the “Live Local Act”, a Florida law that promises to build new affordable housing, but actually greenlights urban sprawl. That is a land use policy that expands new housing developments into wildlife corridors, protected lands, wetlands, rural areas, flood-prone land, or undeveloped green space. These practices do not result in more affordable housing, but the destruction of our natural areas due to more and more development, more and more profits to developers, and costs of infrastructure billed to ratepayers and local governments.
There is a large amount of existing affordable housing located in Environmental Justice communities. Florida policies divert funds that would upgrade those communities, blocking resources that would upgrade the infrastructure of those neighborhoods to protect from pollution and flooding, clean up toxic waste, provide clean energy sources to power their homes, and increase the availability of safe and affordable housing.
We need to end the corrupt land use policies that dominate our state legislative and local governments:
Amend the Live Local Act to provide a true definition of affordable housing for all income levels
Prohibit developers from passing on costs of new infrastructure to new home buyers, local governments, or utility rate-payers
Ensure all Affordable Housing policy follows Smart Growth Practices, not Urban Sprawl, and promote transition to clean, affordable energy and energy conservation.
2. Hyperscale A.I. Data Centers
A full discussion of hyperscale AI Data Centers are contained in the Platform discussion on Data Centers. Suffice to say, these centers are the ultimate expression of corruption in government. Big Tech companies are bullying local governments into building huge blocks of warehouses filled with computer mainframes that require massive amounts of water and energy to cool.
Communities lose access to clean drinking water and reliable energy to power homes and businesses, and are left paying the costs through huge utility rate increases. Massive development costs are paid in part by local governments incurring large amounts of debt, with false promises of jobs and growth, and no recourse once those promises are not kept.
Across the U.S. and in Florida, Americans are advocating in local, state and national governments for a moratorium on building any hyperscale data center. For more specific information, view our Platform section on “Hyperscale AI Data Centers”.
3. Transportation
To get to work, school, or run errands, U.S. residents need a car and the available vehicles are gas-powered. Drivers are stuck with purchasing extremely expensive cars, and increasingly expensive gasoline to power their vehicle. Gas-powered cars are a fortune to purchase, maintain, and power.
There is no question that reliance on more expensive fossil fuels for our transportation is directly related to corruption in our political system.We are seeing a president openly pursue a foreign policy that includes dropping bombs on countries solely to take their oil reserves. The current effort to take Iran’s oil has backfired colossally. Americans are now aware of how heavily our country relies on foreign oil, not just for transportation of humans, but for transportation of all of our goods, as well as food supplies.
Fixing the extreme reliance on oil necessarily means ending the hold that big oil has on our campaign finance system. In the spring of 2024, candidate Trump invited CEOs of big oil companies to Mara Lago, and asked them to contribute one trillion dollars to his campaign in return for an immediate roll back of President Biden’s environmental and climate achievements, and an increase in oil exploration, drilling and production.
They financed close to half a trillion dollars into Trump’s campaign. In return, Trump has systematically dismantled both the Biden-era environmental achievements, and the Environmental Protection Agency. This administration is doubling down on fossil fuel extraction and production.
Here in Florida, we all know that the Republicans in Tallahassee passed the “Don’t Say Climate Change Law”, which forbad any consideration of climate change in Florida law. Local governments are preempted from requiring any transition to clean energy.
It is pretty clear that in order to remove the ability of big oil to dominate US domestic and foreign policy, it is necessary to overturn Citizens United, and end the power that special interests now hold over our elections and our elected officials. All of our Democratic candidates must seriously consider and prioritize all strategies to take back our government, commit to bring back our democratic institutions, and strengthen them in ways that will protect us from this ever happening again.
To implement policies that will provide cheaper and accessible transportation for Americans and for the transport of goods and services, refer to the Platform titled “Break the Grip of Special Interests”.