California Wildfire Resilience And Recovery Legislation

Photo by: BJ Hansen

Sacramento, CA — Senate Republicans unveiled a legislation package today designed to improve California’s preparedness for future wildfires and promote rehabilitation in the regions impacted by the devastating Los Angeles fire.

Mother Lode State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil authored one of the eight bills. It calls for a statewide integrated wildfire smoke and health data platform. During a joint news conference, Senate Pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) introduced a plan to boost state firefighting employment.

“I’m proud of the Senate’s bipartisan approach to addressing issues within our state’s wildfire management, response and recovery apparatus,” said Jones. “There is neither room nor time to play politics with this emergent situation.”

Republicans in the Senate have submitted several proposals to address issues such as community hardening, fire-related crime, environmental limitations following fire occurrences, rebuilding efforts under the California Environmental Quality Act, and water storage and transportation.

“It’s our responsibility as lawmakers to ensure that our first responders have the necessary resources to respond to even the most challenging incidents,” said Sen. Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta). “As a former firefighter, I know firsthand what our firefighters are faced with battling these wildfires. We must be much more proactive in strengthening our response, improving our prevention efforts, and helping people recover from these catastrophic incidents.”

Although the Senate’s initial bipartisan response to the wildfires in Los Angeles has encouraged Senate Republicans, they are still cautious of potential partisan pitfalls, as they say Democrats and the governor have blocked previous attempts. Republicans in the Senate last month published a list of legislative solutions that may have been helpful in the present circumstance but did not pass. Wildfire bills package introduced by Senate Republicans:

• Senate Bill 223 (Alvarado-Gil): Requires the state to build and maintain a statewide integrated wildfire smoke and health data platform that would integrate wildfire smoke and health data from multiple databases.
• Senate Bill 268 (Choi): Excludes from taxable income settlement payments made in connection with any declared state of emergency made by the Governor.
• Senate Bill 269 (Choi): Provides a tax credit to homeowners who perform qualified home hardening and/or vegetation management on their properties.
• Senate Bill 87 (Seyarto): Extends the sales tax exemption on fundraising activities for all volunteer fire departments.
• Senate Bill 90 (Seyarto): Allows the use of Prop 4 funding to support prepositioned mobile rigid water storage and mobile rigid dip tanks as eligible activities for improving public safety. By strategically positioning these tanks in high-risk wildfire areas, California firefighters can reduce helicopter response times and enhance the effectiveness of fire engines and helicopters while making critical improvements to public evacuation routes on specified lands.
• Senate Bill 264 (Valladares): Allows prosecutors to charge those who impersonate a police officer or firefighter during a state of emergency with a felony.
• Senate Bill 265 (Valladares): Classifies burglary committed during a state of emergency—such as during or after a wildfire—as a felony offense.
• Senate Bill 252 (Valladares): Exempts power line infrastructure from the CEQA requirements for undergrounding lines, allowing for expedited completion on projects to move power lines underground.