Insurance legislation could benefit property insurers -- at the expense of customers, one lawmaker says.

State Rep. Rick Kriseman is a reluctant expert on property insurance.

A fire torched his home. His previous Florida-based insurer faltered. His rates jumped 90 percent in the last year.

And now the St. Petersburg Democrat is sounding an alarm about legislative efforts to revamp the system to benefit property insurers at the expense of customers.

``We are making major decisions that have serious impacts on our citizens without full vetting, and that's when bad policy comes out,'' Kriseman said.

 The sobering assessment of the state's exposure comes in spite of several years without any major storms. At the same time, a number of Florida property insurers went insolvent in the last year and the bulk of the state's top companies reported losing money.

The state-run company, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, now holds $405 billion in risk and one in four Florida homeowner policies, and is moving toward financial security after lawmakers mandated rate increases last year. But it still can't withstand more than a 25-year storm.

``The goal should be for every property owner to pay for their exposure for loss; no more, no less,'' said David Daniel, a vice president at the Florida Chamber of Commerce, a force behind the overhaul.

He called the bills a small step in the right direction, and said, ``In the end, the status quo is going to save Floridians some money, but it's going to require that we all pay enormous assessments after the fact, and really it puts our economy at risk.''

The bills (HB447 and SB876) advancing toward the full House and Senate address the bulk of those items. But they also go much further by incorporating a number of industry-friendly provisions.