After March's Consumer Price Index report showed a 3.8% year-over-year increase in inflation, Gov. Ron DeSantis blamed federal spending under President Joe Biden, saying it's "the wages of Bidenomics."
And he seemed to blame Washington for a problem particularly affecting Floridians.
"The No. 1 individual itemized increase for inflation was auto insurance. This print today for just a month had a massive increase and that's really, really difficult," DeSantis said.
The Governor made the comments in St. Petersburg. They come after months of media scrutiny on rates that are as high as anywhere in the country.
According to Bankrate's True Cost of Insurance Report, Florida has the second-most expensive "true cost" of auto insurance in the country, trailing only Louisiana. The average annual premium is just shy of $4,000 and is approaching 6% of people's wages, a burden up nearly 0.8% year over year in terms of income allocation.
Florida's 5.69% year over year increase in terms of wages spent on insurance far exceeds every other state indexed. Arkansas, which is No. 2 on this miserable metric, only saw a 3.95% hike from one year to the next.
Accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs and other motorized mishaps raise those rates further.
The burden is reflected in three major cities tracked as well, which are near the worst ones of the 25 metros indexed in terms of insurance burden.
While Orlando is below the state average in terms of premium costs, both Miami and Tampa are above that threshold, with the average hit to motorists being over $4,000 a year.
To put that cost burden in perspective, Seattle drivers pay less than $1,800 per year on average, the cheapest rate of the 25 major metros tracked by Bankrate.
While another report from Insurify smooths the numbers more in Florida's favor, even by that generous accounting, Sunshine State drivers pay the third most expensive rates in the country, in what that site calls an "insurance crisis."
That crisis isn't helped by the 6.45% of Florida drivers who are on the road without even minimum levels of coverage, according to figures from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
"Florida's No-Fault Law requires motor vehicles registered in Florida be insured with at least $10,000 in personal injury protection (PIP) and $10,000 property damage liability (PDL) coverage throughout the motor vehicle registration period. Failure to maintain the required insurance coverage may result in suspension of the registrant's driver license/registration and a reinstatement fee of $150-$500," the Department says.
In short, the penalties for driving without insurance are light, especially for those people without assets vulnerable to expropriation in court cases. And as anyone who has car shopped or has gone to a hospital recently can attest, $10,000 is a fraction of the costs incurred by car accidents.
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