Citizens property insurance is in the process of making some unprecedented changes.
It is aggressively trying to reduce its exposure to risk. The state-backed insurer wants to cut in half the number of policies it has to about 750-thousand.
Miami Herald Political reporter Toluse Olorunnipa has been following the story. He says what's different this time around is that in the past state lawmakers have handled most of the major changes to Citizens.
"What's happening in the last year or so is that citizens realizes this is an election year it's difficult to push through a lot of the changes that they feel that they need. So, with the help of the Governor they're sort of taking a lot of the responsibility on their own to raise rates and reduce coverage. A lot of the lawmakers that would normally have to do this are against raising rates they know that if they do that it can be hard for them politically."
Citizens has built up a sizable surplus-- 6 billion dollars. But it may not be able to cover damage from a massive storm or a series of storms. That would lead to the state levying taxes on all Floridians. Citizens says it wants to put some of that risk back into the private market.