We know storms can make trees build deeper roots. That's not typically the case when it comes to a home. Severe storms and hurricanes can take a toll on a structure over time.

While proven time and again during hurricane seasons past, we saw it once more when hurricanes Helene and Milton hit Florida this year and left older homes constructed at sea level with the most damage. It's been reported the storms have produced more than 300,000 claims, mostly residential, totaling more than $5 billion.

Just recently, Florida state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, began shopping around a home-hardening idea using a property tax break to incentivize homeowners to make their houses more storm resilient. Under his plan, local property taxes would be frozen for a period ranging from 15 to 20 years for homeowners who make qualified upgrades, which include elevating homes to meet newer building codes.

Ingoglia's tax relief proposal is currently under consideration by legislative colleagues and stakeholders but it's a definite "no" from me, and here's why.

The assessed values of these older homes don't generate a huge amount of ad-valorem tax revenue, and a marginal tax break is not going to create enough real dollars to make any impact in the event of a loss due to a storm event.

Ingoglia believes this tax break would ultimately strengthen older homes, better protect homeowners and lead to significant savings in disaster recovery over time. I believe taking away potential revenue from local municipalities is the only real result of this effort without any real impact on mitigating costs to the homeowner in the event of an insurable loss.

To me, it makes more sense to require homeowners to place escrow monies in reserve to replace items like roofs, windows and doors. When these large ticket items are needed, the money would be available to complete the repairs and keep these homes insurable at a reasonable cost. This would further mitigate the chances of large claims being made to insurers.

Basically, this reserve would be like a health savings account for medical needs, and I believe a federal tax break for money paid into these accounts would be more effective in the end.

The good news is lawmakers are listening. In recent years, they have passed measures aimed at trying to stabilize the state's property insurance market. These include providing $3 billion to help insurers with reinsurance, shifting policies back to the private market and away from the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and limiting lawsuits over property insurance.

While I might not agree with his idea, I do appreciate the intent behind Ingoglia's proposal. Hopefully, it leads to even more innovative ideas that provide Florida homeowners with better ways to weather future storms in the Sunshine State.