Sorry, but I'm a little cynical too. I'm not afraid of the higher insurance costs, but I'm cynical of the government's motivation.
First we added the Hurricane Deductible...and higher costs. Then each year higher costs, and the Hurricane Deductible increased. (don't know if people outside of Florida realize that even with insurance, because of the Hurricane Deductible, the homeowner is responsible for a much larger deductible if their property is damaged by a hurricane.)
My skepticism comes from the fact that if you force an elderly person out of their home, there might be other motivation for the community/lawmakers.
Take myself for instance...we bought our home almost 18 years ago, for next to nothing. Property values have skyrocketed. Our taxes remain low because of Save Our Homes and the fact that they can only raise our taxes a couple percent a year, even though the value of our home goes up much more than that a year.
If I were "forced" to sell because of insurance rates, then my property would be reassessed for tax purposes and the new owner would pay those taxes.
The "gov't" would then be able to realize a 5 fold increase in taxes because without SOH, I'd be paying 5 times what I now pay.
Tax collected woud be $500 a month.
It's the motivation of the lawmakers/tax collectors, that's in question, IMHO.
Without allowing insurance companies to recoup their losses from paying out billions in damages from your regular hurricanes then you might be faced with a situation where your hurricane deductible is 100% of the value of your home...because no insurance company will be stupid enough to do business in Flordia. Look at the bright side. My heating bill for December was over $300 bucks for a mild month. What you save in gas bills you pay in insurance. It's a wash.
There is probably some truth to what you say. It's part of my belief system that government is not your friend.
Can't they reassess whenever they want, in NJ they reassess on a regular basis, you don't have to sell your home. I think that the cost of living is catching up with these areas that have a high risk of home damage. In NJ we pay very high car insurance rates because the chances of an accident or having your car stolen are higher. In Florida you don't pay high car insurance rates because that is not the case. You should pay higher homeowner rates because the chance of your house blowing away is greater. I think the conspiracy theory that your local government is chomping at the bit to move you out of your house to get $500 more a year are a little far fetched. If the local government needs more money they will find a way to raise your taxes. From what I hear Florida is a very inexpensive state to live in, that's why allot of New Yorkers retire there, or at least have summer homes there. I think if you have a home in a high risk area you should pay for it not the people who choose not to live there.