Blaise Ingoglia warns that tort reform could be repealed, turns heat on schools

Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia warned that the state’s insurance tort reform legislation is at risk of being repealed under changing political headwinds. 

Ingoglia said he is working hard to keep the “historic reforms” for insurance put in place under Gov. Ron DeSantis, then-Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and then-House Speaker Paul Renner.

“We got lucky. The stars aligned for that,” Ingoglia said during a speech at the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s annual insurance summit.

“What I need everyone in this room to understand is that as much as everything was politically aligned to get tort reform, things can get politically aligned to undo tort reform, which would be a travesty here in the state of Florida. So we need to start delivering wins to consumers here in the state of Florida, policyholders.”

Ingoglia, who was sworn in this Summer, touted many of his previous promises from his press conferences on the road. He said he plans to look at every Florida city and county budget to make sure they are not overtaxing residents.

“Government should never ever grow faster than inflation or population,” he said. “If you’re doing that, then government is growing way too quick and becoming way too intrusive and taxing way too much.”

Supporting the Governor, Ingoglia is trying to make the case to repeal homestead property taxes altogether.

He called schools “some of the worst offenders when it comes to wasting money.”

“When we start showing the numbers on that, you are going to be absolutely amazed at the amount of money that school boards are wasting that never even hit the classroom,” Ingoglia said. “It’s all administration. It is not going to make our students and our future generations here in the state of Florida smarter.”

Many school officials are warning that their districts are facing unprecedented budget crises as more students are taking taxpayer funded vouchers to go private schools. 

The Chamber’s insurance summit continues Friday.