Excerpt from Gov. Crist's
Inaugural Address:

If we move forward together as Floridians to do the people's work, there is nothing we cannot achieve! This is our calling, this is our duty, this is our destiny! The people's Legislature and the people's governor following the people's agenda. Item one on that agenda must be to reduce the burden on our people from the spiraling costs of property insurance and property taxes.

I have traveled our beautiful state, and everywhere I go I hear from our people that escalating property taxes and insurance premiums are each day taking more from our wallets; diminishing bit by bit our opportunity to enjoy what Florida has to offer.
In these travels with our great lieutenant governor, I have spoken with thousands of Floridians who are suffering. One of those Floridians is Guinevive Kilgore. An 83-year-old, African-American woman from Pensacola. Guinevive told us that her property insurance this year climbed from a thousand dollars a year to more than $5,000.

Skyrocketing property insurance and property tax rates are a real threat to our citizens. The impact can be crippling. Some of our families are no longer able to afford their homes, spending down their retirement to keep a roof over their head, leveraging their children's future to keep food on the table. This cannot - this will not - stand.

Our families cannot be secure if their homes are at risk. Our people cannot be productive if they are consumed with worry. Our state cannot be a place of opportunity if we cannot fulfill the American promise of owning an affordable home. We need action and our people deserve relief. And most of all we need comprehensive reform. Not stop-gap measures, no Band-Aids, no finger in the dike. We need permanent, real solutions for the people.

And the time has come to expand Florida's homestead exemption as a shield against burdensome taxes and to rein in overreaching insurance companies. Two weeks from today the Legislature will convene in a special session to address the insurance crisis. I pledge the full resources of my office to work with the leaders of the House and the Senate along with our new chief financial officer to bring our people the relief that they need and deserve.

Read Gov. Charlie Crist's Full Inaugural Address...