Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis Credit: Photo via Jimmy Patronis/Twitter

State Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who helps oversee the insurance industry, wrote a letter Wednesday to former President Donald Trump that said the Republican presidential nominee is the “only person who can fix our country when it comes to our current insurance crisis.”

The letter, on office stationery, suggested to Trump a series of proposals that included cutting interest rates, pressuring European reinsurers to abandon “environmental, social and governance” mandates, and dismantling the Federal Insurance Office within the U.S. Treasury, as the “regulation of insurance matters should be left up to the states.”

The Florida Democratic Party criticized Patronis for “political games” and “passing the blame for the property insurance crisis in Florida.”

“Republicans have had years to propose solutions to this problem and pass policies to deliver relief to Floridians — and repeatedly failed,” Democratic Chairwoman Nikki Fried said in a statement.

Florida has faced massive property-insurance problems in recent years, with private insurers dropping policies, raising rates — and, in some cases, going insolvent. Lawmakers have made a series of changes to try to revitalize the market, including curbing lawsuits against insurers and seeking to push policies from the state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. into the private market.

While the industry has reported signs of stabilization in the past year, the average cost of residential insurance in Florida is $5,533 a year for $300,000 in policy coverage, according to Bankrate. Similar coverage nationally is $2,230 a year.

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