New Fee May Backfire On Wildfire Budget
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A California law that imposes an annual wildfire fee on rural residents may have an unintended consequence -- sapping the state fire agency of money it needs to fight wildland blazes, officials said Wednesday.
Concerns about the $150-a-year fee, which is contained in the state budget Gov. Jerry Brown signed earlier this summer, were raised Wednesday by the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Democrats in the Legislature passed the fee and said it eventually would raise $200 million a year. That would allow the state to transfer an equal amount of money from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to the general fund budget.
Under the law, proceeds from the fee must go to local fire-prevention efforts through local fire districts, fire councils or the California Conservation Corps -- not the state fire department.
George Gentry, chief operating officer of the Board of Forestry, told The Associated Press that will leave the department with a hole in its budget this year.
"Obviously, that is a huge question," Gentry told The Associated Press in a telephone interview after the board meeting. "I'm not really sure how that $50 million budget cut will be addressed in all of this."
The fee was intended to raise $50 million in the current fiscal year and $200 million a year afterward.
Brown raised the possibility of problems when he signed the bill into law last month, saying lawmakers need to make some changes. At the time, administration officials said the key problem was that the bill requires the fee revenue to be used for creating defensible space around homes instead of actually fighting fires.
Many local fire districts already have their own fire-prevention programs.
Gentry and Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford said they are unaware of any attempts so far to amend the law.
"We intend to comply with what the Legislature asked us to do," Gentry said. "If the governor does come up with some sort of legislation, we can always repeal the regulation."
The Board of Forestry directed Gentry to begin drafting emergency regulations to begin the collections starting Jan. 1.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
