You're watching Southwest Florida in focus.

Coming up, a new rate hike is coming for the state's largest home insurer.

While most policyholders for Citizens property insurance Corporation will feel the rising cost and why, state leaders say the increase is a critical step for saving the insurance market.

Statewide.

When I get into the Everglades with my camera, I get physically in the water.

I bring that emotion to the photographs.

People can start seeing what it's all about.

Get a feeling.

See?

But feel what it's all about.

After being recognized in Washington with the National Medal of Arts, we sit with legendary photographer Clyde Butcher for a snapshot of his career And keeping the laughter brewing for nearly 40 years, comedian Paula Poundstone joins us to discuss her path to stardom and her adoration for public broadcasting.

Hello, I'm Sandra Victorova.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Well, the state's largest home insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, is raising rates for hundreds of thousands of its customers.

80% of Citizens policy holders statewide will face a rate hike.

On average, those customers can expect an 8.6% rate increase.

Governor Ron DeSantis says this is good news.

The increase is less than what citizens had asked the state to approve.

Other insurance companies also say the higher rate at citizens is a necessary move to save the state's struggling insurance market, which has seen several insurance companies fail or leave Florida.

But the benefits of higher rates are a hard sell.

When homeowners across our state want relief from some of the highest property insurance rates in the country.

Folks like John Miksula who moved to Punta gorda from Chicago four years ago.

He says budgeting has been tough because he depends on Social Security, and the annual cost of his home.

Insurance has doubled in just about four years.

After the hurricanes came.

Now it's up to about $3,800 a year, and I'm still less than half of my neighbors in the area.

Everybody's talking about their insurance rate, or at 5000, 6000.

I even have some couple of neighbors are moving back up north because they figure they can't take this anymore.

To help us understand where the insurance market is going.

We are joined now by Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute, an industry association.

Thank you for joining us, Marc.

Thanks so much for having me today.

So, Marc, I know that you believe these ongoing increases by citizens is a positive thing.

Long term for homeowners.

But first, I think it's important for you to explain to everyone what is Citizen's Property Insurance Corporation and why its impact is so critical to the entire market?

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is the state backed insurer of last resort, which was created by the Florida Legislature to act as a backstop for those consumers that cannot find coverage in the private market.

So why do you think citizens continuing to increase its rates is a positive thing for Florida homeowners in general?

Citizens grew at an extremely high rate for several years because of Florida's Man-Made risk Crisis of Legal System Abuse and Assignment of benefits claim fraud.

In fact, at year end 2023, citizens had 18.5% market share, by far the largest home insurance the state of Florida.

You never want your backstop insurer to be your largest market.

And there are several reasons for that.

I mentioned a couple of the factors of the Man-Made Risk Crisis, but also, citizens have been selling insurance at a discounted rate, and that is mandated by the state regulations.

They don't allow citizens to charge what we call actuarial sound rates.

So as a result, citizens typically will always be the best price any consumer could get.

And citizens is not intended to be a lifetime insurer, only a backstop when there's no other options.

Well, now that the private market has improved substantially, it's time to get customers off as citizens.

And they've been going through a very extensive de population program, moving several hundred thousand customers to the private market through de population.

It's because the private markets financial position has improved.

They're able to take on more risk exposure.

But in order for that de population to continue in a positive fashion, citizens needs to have unattractive rates.

So citizens needs to raise the rates to get to an actual sound level and no longer compete with the private market.

That is the goal of the rate changes that we're talking about today.

Help us to understand when citizens gets too big, what is the risk to all of us?

What happens when citizens risk exposure gets too big?

We have the potential of what's called a hurricane tax, which is a surcharge that could be applied not only to all existing citizens customers, but an emergency assessment to every consumer in the state of Florida.

And we're not just talking about homeowners.

We're talking about renters.

Those that have a renter's insurance policy, talking about auto insurance policies, pet insurance policies, life insurance policies, every type of policy written in the state of Florida could see a multiyear assessment, which we finally call the hurricane tax.

We don't want to see that scenario.

Citizens doing a great job depopulate.

And it needs to continue to come down.

A few hundred thousand more customers need to be moved to the private market over the next couple of years to get to a stable position.

Because in order for Florida to have a stable marketplace statewide, we need citizens to be a much smaller risk exposure.

Homeowners watching may have a hard time understanding why the market is struggling, when they feel like they've been paying higher and higher rates every year.

Florida consumers have been paying higher rates because of the Man-Made Risk Crisis once again.

Billboard attorneys drove this crisis.

They took advantage of loopholes in Florida regulations to sue insurers at historical levels.

In fact, four out of every five property claim lawsuits in the U.S. for many years were filed in Florida.

That's a disproportionate level.

Now, some attorneys may tell you that insurers need to be sued to pay claims.

And there are situations where there might be a claim dispute.

We don't disagree with that.

But it was an extreme of we're talking about 80 to 100,000 lawsuits a year in Florida for several years, completely an out of control situation that the legislature finally addressed in a special session in December 2022.

At that point, we already had seen six Florida insurers go insolvent.

Mark with the 10s, I have.

So we're left.

What do you expect from the state legislature?

Is there still more that needs to be done?

And do you expect rates to turn around here for homeowners soon?

Rates have moderated in Florida.

Florida had the lowest average rate changes in the US last year.

We don't expect the legislature to pass any bills that would upset the current dynamics where the market is vastly improving.

Mark Friedlander, thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

After the break.

A life in black and white.

Clyde Butcher's impressive career in film has captured the attention of art lovers for decades now.

He provides a glimpse into how he has evolved as a photographer.

It's no secret.

Real estate prices have skyrocketed in southwest Florida this last decade.

It seems like we hear about big dollar land deals on a regular basis.

Price tags often hitting hundreds of millions of dollars.

Much of what's happening to the land now dates back to a relatively short time ago, about 60 years or so.

Still, the people who develop this area leave a memorable legacy.

But as WGCUs Mike Walcher reports, it might also come at a cost.

The land, water and wildlife.

This tale starts with so much untouched land and the sea, both warmed by abundant sunshine.

Came down here in February and went out and played golf, and they didn't need to be bundled up.

They don't have to worry about snow and pleasant and sleet.

You know, this was a Paradise for them.

People named Collier Griffin, Rosen, Ratner, Sanders.

They saw potential to grow.

They knew this area had timber for building.

It had food, beef and citrus, and the land could grow more almost year round.

The Gulf was rich with life for food and sportfishing.

The region had massive deposits of limestone to crush and to aggregate.

It's the foundation for roads, homes and other buildings and it makes concrete.

So the boom began.

There were very, very little in terms of environmental regulations.

Basically, if you own the land at that point, you could do whatever you wanted to with it.

You wouldn't want to do that.

Money wasn't always the end goal.

It was doing the right things for future generations.

Paige Rauch is a native of southwest Florida.

Her father was a WINK broadcast engineer who knew a lot of the pioneer developers.

She says she would tag along with her dad, and at places like The Veranda and Fort Myers, saw how a handshake could buy or sell thousands of acres.

So your word was your bond.

But a handshake was like a contract.

The actual legal document would be drawn up later.

Rausch has been in real estate her whole life, and says it just made sense for land men to gather at a now closed bar in LaBelle.

They would divvy up land Wild West style.

Where is it getting that?

They played called High Card Cut.

And they had purchased a tremendous amount of property, and that was how they split the property up was by using high card cut.

Did they care about what they were doing to the land?

Probably not.

I didn't think about it.

Journalist Glenn Miller has lived on the Gulf Coast nearly his entire life, and is past president of the Southwest Florida Historical Society.

It's got to be a limit.

How much more can the land take?

How much work in the water take?

How many more people can move here, and then how many more tourists can come here?

Shelton Weeks of the Lutgert College of Business at FGCU says sprawl should stop now, because building into the center of the peninsula, 40 miles from the coast, could have significant environmental impacts.

I tend to favor looking at higher density as a pathway to growth.

That would, in my mind, involve fewer negative tradeoffs than sprawl model.

Paige Roush says Ben Hill Griffin, the third, proved he wanted more than money by donating 760 acres, more than a square mile of land for Fgcu.

Choosing a campus site came down to a Board of Regents meeting in 1992.

Roush says other developers competed with Griffin.

He wanted to win, and he was a decision maker as chief executive of the illegal corporation.

Griffin made a bold move.

His decision was he was going to stand back up at that lectern and he was going to throw in not only the land for free, but he was going to give $1 million.

And that was the deal sealer right there.

Later, Griffin donated millions more to build Alico arena and to help pay for academic programs.

How then, do we judge those giants of the land?

They had a belief in this area, and they wanted to be remembered, and they wanted to be remembered for doing good.

Yes, there was a profit motive, but at the end of the day, they were building communities that they felt they could be proud of.

Shelton Week says he's optimistic because environmental regulations are stronger now than even a few years ago.

And most people view sustainability as a positive.

For WGCU news, I'm Mike Walcher Renowned photographer and environmental advocate Clyde Butcher has spent decades capturing Florida's wild spaces.

His striking black and white images have earned him comparisons to Ansel Adams.

Last October, President Joe Biden awarded him with the National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest artistic honor.

WGCUs Tara Calligan sat down with butcher at his Venice gallery to discuss his life, work and the personal tragedy that reshaped his artistic vision.

Your stunning black and white photos have been captivating people for decades.

What first inspired you to focus your lens on Florida's wildlife and its landscape?

Well, we came from California here, and I was doing landscape there since 1969, and we came here in, 1980.

It was four years before I disco We were going to an art show and, wait, a Vista Village and Disney, Disney World and, there was this little place on 27 Tom Gaskins place, and he had these little road signs, one series of science.

So if your husband stop, take off your shoes here in the head.

So Nikki threatened me in the head because she likes us.

She really likes the old, funky part of Florida.

And so I stopped, and Tom says, I see your your real board.

We have a boardwalk in the back.

And there was this beautiful scene of the cypress and the water, and I just said, wow, this is really exciting.

Reminds me of the redwood forest.

So I came back, the next day with my camera.

What is it about the Everglades?

That is somewhere that you want to be.

Something that you feel is worthy of photography.

Well, Everglades is really a hidden treasure, and it's a beautiful place, but I'm not sure yet.

And it.

You can't feel it.

And most of my photographs are really feelings of what I see.

And I started basically, I guess it was in 1984 in color.

And then, I was doing I was doing art shows and people were very interested in the Everglades.

I was selling well, but I didn't think they saw it so much color.

And so I, I was thinking about going back to black and white.

Then in 1986, our son was killed in a truck accident there in Fort Myers.

And I was at our show in, Michigan and Arbor, Michigan.

And I was sitting there like my work and I said, you know, I'm going to go black.

Why go back?

I had maybe $400,000 of the stuff or went to the dump ship.

The negatives, I kept the negatives and I went to black and white.

And that's how I got over the, deaths of our son.

Went out photographing and in the swamp and, to my best pictures, moonrise and your job choppy.

Were taking that period of time.

How does black and white photography convey the urgency of conservation?

Maybe better than another medium.

Well, okay, this this is probably very controversial, but.

Shoot in black and white.

You're serious in color.

You're you're a poster person.

You're looking for a pretty picture.

And people, they don't know it, but they understand that black and white is important.

It's more than just a pretty picture.

What are some of the biggest misconceptions that you think people might have about Florida's wild spaces?

You drive across Alligator Alley or Highway 41.

You see the Everglades by car in California.

You can do that because you see nice big old mountains.

You know, it's pretty impressive.

But when I get into the Everglades with my camera, I get physically in the water.

I bring that emotion to the photographs that people can start seeing what it's all about, get a feeling, not see, but feel what it's all about.

You recently received the National Medal of Arts.

What do you think that recognition means for you, especially as someone that focuses on conservation of Florida?

Well, it probably means I'm doing a good job.

Keep doing it.

If there was one image that you would like to be remembered by, one that might sum up you think you legacy.

Have you shot that yet?

Do you know what that is?

Well, one of the important ones.

Moonrise, because that's when I first when I got where Ted was killed.

So that one's been very important to me.

The problem is, almost every one of these pictures has an emotional contact with them.

There's just.

There's just the body of work is there's a bunch of emotion.

Clyde Butcher's work continues to inspire and challenge how we see the world around us.

His latest book, Clyde Butcher Life Works in Photography, is available now alongside a traveling exhibition of the same name.

Now I feel like I do my shows in people.

People are so glad to to come out, to laugh.

And, you know, so glad, I think, to be in a room with a little bit of sanity.

After the break, as Paula Poundstone prepares for an upcoming comedic performance in Southwest Florida, she sits with us to talk about the challenges of walking that tightrope between comedy and political discord.

Comedian Paula Poundstone will perform in Sarasota on February 15th.

And if you're an NPR fan, you know Paula is a regular guest on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and a longtime supporter of public media.

And Paula is making my day to day by chatting with us because I love listening to you, Paula, on the weekends.

You make me laugh.

So thank you for that and welcome.

Thank you.

So, Paula, I read that you've been doing standup since like 1979.

So you've definitely seen the landscape of comedy change.

And I'm wondering, you know, if you've had to change your approach material over concerns about offending people, being politically correct over being canceled, concerns about being canceled, is that something you've that's kind of changed your comedy in any way?

No.

There was a little period, like soon after the Golden escalator where, there were Trump supporters that were, kind of demonstratively storming out.

Not a lot.

I probably didn't have a lot to begin with.

But enough that, you know, I was like, hey, and, that seems to have gone away now.

A long time ago.

Went away.

And the other thing is, I kind of.

I am who I am, and, I yeah, I people come out to see me, because they like who I am.

And if people somewhere along the way go, well, we don't like that, then they shouldn't be there anyways.

So, It's fine.

And again, that was many years ago.

It really hasn't been the case.

And it felt really was the word orchestrated at the time.

So I think it was the beginnings of this sort of, you know, whatever mess we're in now.

Will you make me laugh on.

Wait, wait, don't tell me.

Let me say thank you.

You've got to be really up on current events to to pull that off.

Are you an NPR, news nerd?

I, I, I listen to a lot of news.

I listen to, I listen to public radio.

I value public radio.

I feel like we're lucky to have public radio, especially, you know, the place.

A place where I can trust the journalistic integrity.

And here's the thing.

Part of what makes me say that because.

Because I don't know.

How do I know what's happening in the world unless somebody else tells me I'm not there?

But here's what makes me say that.

Is that the occasional me on NPR and occasionally on also on PBS, which I watch the News hour a lot.

Occasionally they'll say, you know, you know, on last night's, on last night's broadcast, we made a mistake, and then they'll correct the mistake.

That's what makes me trust them.

That show looks like so much fun.

What's the best part of it?

It is fun.

It's really fun.

You know, the host and the scorekeeper.

That would be Peter Sagal and, Bill Kurtis, have scripts.

And it's not that they never go off script, but they both have scripts.

And the rest of us don't.

So it is really fun just sort of being out there.

You know, it's, you know, sometimes I swing and I miss, and sometimes I get a little piece of it.

All right.

And the other thing that's great about it is that, although we all certainly have egos, you can't be in this business and not have an ego because you would have, you know, you would have gotten the stuffing kicked out of you years ago.

But although we certainly all have egos, nobody like when something funny happens on the show, nobody comes like the next one.

Panelist can add on to what another panelist said.

You know, somebody makes a funny joke and somebody else just sort of enhances it.

And no one ever comes along and goes, well, that was mine.

I, you know.

And that's really fun knowing that that, you know, the playing field is wide open.

Who is that?

He is so adorable.

Well, thank you so much.

Now, your sidekick there, Yeah.

You.

This is a this is a really, Poorly behaved dog, but she sure is beautiful.

She's the only unfriendly, golden retriever I've ever known.

Oh, she is adorable.

Well, we are so glad you made it.

And you always entertain us.

And you entertain me.

So thank you for that.

Paul, it's been a treat talking to you.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Thank you very much.

All right.

And we look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Excuse me.

On in Sarasota on February 15th.

Thanks again.

you.

More water on the Coming up next week on Southwest Florida in Focus, finding the perfect note to some of the world's top tenors.

Unite to belt out their best Pavarotti.

And the future of construction comes to life as Babcock Ranch begins building their homes using robot power.

Be sure to join us for that story and much more on WGCU.

Until then, have a great week everyone!