text: ”Those factors make it more difficult to write the business we were expecting to,” said Don Cronin, president of United Property & Casualty in St. Petersburg.
  United got a $20 million loan. While the company is writing policies, including coverage in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, the company hasn’t met the mark set out by the capital build-up program.
  All companies receiving loans were expected to leverage their surplus, writing $2 of net premium to every $1 of surplus.
  Insurance experts said that’s an aggressive level to reach. The new insurance law softens those requirements so meeting the program’s criteria would be easier and companies could avoid penalties.
  Created in 2006 to bolster insurers in Florida, the program could be a double-edged sword this time. Two years ago, the money was taken from extra tax revenue generated by the hurricane-rebuilding effort after the 2004 and 2005 storms.
  Now, the new insurance law passed last week would take $250 million from Citizens’ surplus. The insurer expects to have more than $4 billion on hand by the end of the year if no major storm hits the state.
  The loans would be paid back to Citizens with interest over 20 years. The new law requires Citizens to transfer the funds later this year if its surplus exceeds $1 billion, but it won’t take money from the reserves set aside to cover windstorm claims.