With just minutes left in the 2006 legislative session, Florida lawmakers reluctantly passed a massive insurance reform bill that raises rates for most homeowners but not as quickly as had been contemplated.

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

Moments after the insurance package passed, the final day's other big-ticket measure -- a $60 million tax break to help build a Florida Marlins stadium in Hialeah -- died when the Senate passed it but the House ran out of time.

The 141-page insurance bill -- far from being considered the ideal solution for the state's deepening insurance crisis -- will provide a loan program for consumers to make their homes better able to withstand storms. It also provides ways to shore up some insurers lacking capital after being whacked by eight hurricanes in two years.

''I've heard it called a Band-Aid over a bullet wound, but you've got to start somewhere,'' said State Rep. Greg Evers, a Milton Republican, during the final debate on the House floor.

Many of the provisions in the final version focused on shifting the burden of covering future deficits of Citizens Property Insurance to the homeowners who are covered by the pool. This will be done through hefty assessments and rate increases that will eventually double premiums from current levels.

Earlier Friday, versions of the insurance bill not only included hefty rate increases but would have allowed Citizens to add up to two 50 percent surcharges to Citizens premiums for second homes and vacation homes. The bill would have allowed one surcharge of up to 50 percent on premiums of homesteaded properties.

The bill ''gives everybody the opportunity to digest and ingest the fact that they're going to pay more. It's not going to be a rocket going straight up. It's going to be a glide path that slowly but surely gets the program on a more even keel,'' said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville.

Using $715 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.

This reduces the first part of the assessment on all Florida homeowners from 11 percent to 2.5 percent. 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; companies would have to put up an equal amount of capital.

Pushing homes valued at more than $1 million out of the Citizens windstorm insurance pool after July 2008. Vacation homes and second homes will be ineligible for Citizens' coverage after next March.

''This helps, though we would have wanted more,'' said William Stander, government affairs representative for Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

He said about 30 small insurers in this trade group might want to take advantage of that provision. Without it, some of these small companies would not have had enough reinsurance to cover potential losses in the coming hurricane season and would have been forced to shut down.

One of the sticking points for the insurance industry -- creating a public counsel to represent Florida consumers in rate hearings -- was eliminated at the last minute.

Shepherding the insurance bill through committees and the Senate ''was a lot more work than I bargained for,'' said Sen. Rudy Garcia, the Hialeah Republican who chairs the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.

This is cache, read story here