Homeowners aren't the only ones who have to worry about the rising cost of property insurance.
It's hitting the Pasco County School District, too.
The school board learned this week that the cost to cover the district for property damage caused by hurricanes, fires or other perils will be $3.6 million in the 2012-13 fiscal year, a 12 percent increase.
The policy also will provide less coverage, with the district assuming the risk for damage to portable classrooms, vehicles, buildings valued at less than $100,000, and what is termed "property in the open," which includes such items as signs, lights, basketball hoops and playgrounds.
"I guess we want to make sure our buses aren't all parked in the same spot in a storm," board Vice Chairwoman Cynthia Armstrong said wryly.
The cost of the insurance premium would have increased 24 percent if the district wanted to keep its coverage the same as last year.
Board member Allen Altman, who is on the district's insurance committee and is in the insurance business, said that "an entire spreadsheet of options" was considered before the final plan was brought to the board for approval Tuesday. "There were no good options," Altman said.
The final choice was a balance between being prudent about coverage, while saving money at the same time, he said.
Alan Florez, who handles the district's account with Public Risk Insurance Agency, said two major factors caused the premium increase. One dates to early 2011 when a new version of a wind-modeling tool went into effect that increased predicted losses from a hurricane. When the board renewed its policy in July 2011, not all insurers had accepted the new model, Florez said. Now they have.
Florez said insurance prices were affected by several disasters in the country and the world, such as tornadoes, Hurricane Irene, which swept up the U.S. East Coast in 2011, and last year's massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
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