Only a rough outline of what the final bill might look like was available late Friday, but it's likely to contain only tiny breaks on escalating insurance costs for South Florida homeowners.

''There was no way for anybody's rates to go down,'' said Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, who has been working with House and Senate leaders since the beginning of the week to broker a deal on the massive insurance bill.

Many of the provisions included in the discussions over the past two days focused on shifting the burden of making up any future shortfalls in Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer of last resort, to the homeowners that are covered by this pool. This would be done through hefty assessments and outsized rate increases.

Still, premiums would double from current rates after three years. The huge rate hikes would be needed because the proposed bill would require Citizens to cover all its claims through reserves and reinsurance.

Using $750 million from the extra sales-tax revenue generated by the hurricane rebuilding effort to cover a portion of Citizens' 2005 deficit of $1.7 billion. The remainder would be spread out over 10 years, easing the burden on homeowners.

Using another $250 million for a surplus loan program to help bolster insurers' capital. The state would loan insurers up to $25 million, and the companies would have to put up an equal amount of capital.

One of the sticking points for the insurance industry was a provision creating a public counsel to represent Florida consumers in rate hearings.

Mark Delegal, a lobbyist for State Farm Insurance, said having a public counsel is a deterrent to insurers operating in this state. Having that provision in the bill would keep it from getting passed, he predicted.

Gallagher agreed there was no need for a public counsel since the state already had an insurance consumer, who is currently part of the Department of Financial Services.

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