After appealing to Warren Buffett to bankroll potential hurricane-related losses last year, Gov. Charlie Crist and other state officials will look to the federal government to help cover costs from a major storm this year.

“From the federal government’s standpoint, it would be one of the least risky things they’ve embarked on here in the last few months,” said John Forney, Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund financial adviser.

Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum and state CFO Alex Sink all agreed Tuesday to push for a federal line of credit in case a major storm hits the state.

The state’s catastrophe fund has about $8 billion in cash on hand, but is on the hook for about $28 billion in losses. Forney said there was a 6 percent chance a storm would drain the catastrophe fund this year.

State officials believe the highly rated fund could finance much — but not all — of the gap.

Crist said he talked about a line of credit with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton.

Last year, Crist and the other State Board of Administration trustees agreed to pay $224 million to Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in return for a promise to loan the state $4 billion if an Andrew-type hurricane hit the state.

Tags: Alex Sink, catastophe fund, Charlie Crist, Craig Fugate, FEMA, Ron Klein, Warren Buffett

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Alex Sink, audio, Charlie Crist, Florida Cabinet, Ron Klein. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.