TALLAHASSEE -- After a frenzied day of debate and deal making, the Legislature late Friday finally passed legislation designed to help bolster the state's troubled property-insurance market.

Setting aside $715 million from the state's general revenue fund to wipe out about half of state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp.'s estimated $1.7 billion deficit from the 2005 hurricane season. Homeowners will still have to pay a 2.5 percent assessment, or $25 for every $1,000 of premium paid. Another emergency assessment would also be required, but it would be spread out over 10 years and amount to $10.70 for every $1,000 of premium paid.

Starting in July 2007, insurance companies would be allowed to raise home-insurance premiums by 10 percent in a given area without getting approval from the Office of Insurance Regulation. But the office would have to determine that a reasonable amount of competition exists before it is allowed to raise rates without regulatory review.

Citizens would have to charge high-enough rates to cover losses suffered in a once-in-a-century hurricane. That change would be phased in over three years so premiums wouldn't immediately spike.

Homes with an insured value of more than $1 million in Citizens' high-risk area -- generally east of Interstate 95 in Central Florida -- would not be eligible for an insurance policy after July 1, 2008. Homeowners who can't find coverage would be eligible to get a Citizens policy but would have to pay higher rates.

Second and vacation homes also would not be eligible for Citizens policies after March 1, 2007, unless policyholders provide affidavits that they can't find coverage elsewhere.

The Legislature would set aside $250 million for a loan program to help capitalize qualifying insurance companies, and $250 million for a program to help people upgrade their homes to better withstand hurricane-force winds.

"We're trying to strike that balance between affordability and availability," said state Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, one of the architects of the insurance proposal.

Earlier deals had been reached and scrapped at various points throughout the day, with the two sides tangling over several contentious issues, including how much Citizens policyholders should pay to make up for the company's losses and at what point homes insured for more than $1 million should be kicked out of Citizens.

At 10 p.m., Bense announced, "We have in principle reached an agreement with the Senate on insurance, which is frankly the last thing we have back there."

"It's not everything that everyone wanted . . . [but] it has to be a package," Jennings said. "This is just a good start, and that's the important part."

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