(The Center Square) – Republican lawmakers in California introduced wildfire legislation on Tuesday afternoon, just weeks after Democrats introduced bills to grapple with the Golden State’s worsening fire seasons.
“As California continues to face escalating wildfire threats, especially in our rural communities and our wildland-urban interface communities, it’s critical that we prioritize prevention, resilience and financial relief for hard-working families and property owners,” Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, R-Modesto, said during a press conference introducing the Republican-led legislation.
The bills introduced by Republicans attempt to stabilize the insurance market, protect homeowners’ properties and reduce the risk of wildfire, according to Alvarado-Gil and other lawmakers who talked about their legislation.
Alvarado-Gil is pushing for a $2 billion annual commitment to fire prevention efforts, which would help pay for year-round firefighters. Some of those dollars would be designated to grants for Cal Fire to assist in wildfire fighting and prevention efforts in areas with a high concentration of California Fair Plan homeowners.
The California Fair Plan, the state’s homeowners’ insurance program, is often the only way to insure a home in California in areas where private insurance companies won’t provide homeowners insurance because of a high risk of wildfire or other natural disaster.
Alvarado-Gil said her legislation, Senate Bill 1162, directs Cal Fire to prioritize vegetation management in high-density California Fair Plan areas.
“This will reduce wildfire issue risks and personal liability exposure for homeowners,” Alvarado-Gil said during the press conference.
Some of the other bills in the Republican package include Senate Bill 1084, which aims to provide personal income tax credits to help offset costs related to home hardening projects. That can include fire-resistant roofing, ember-resistent vents and defensible space enhancements. Senate Bill 899, authored by Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, would require an assessment of health costs and impacts of wildfire smoke.
The package of wildfire-related bills discussed by Republican lawmakers on Tuesday are supported by local fire departments and Cal Fire.
“The bills empower residents to protect their homes,” Tim Cordero, fire chief of the El Dorado County Fire Protection District, said on Tuesday. “For our residents, now is the time to act. Clear defensible space. Harden your homes. Add back-up power. These tools make protection achievable.”
Democratic lawmakers also introduced wildfire-related bills this year. Thirteen different bills authored by legislators on the other side of the aisle aimed to accomplish similar goals in reducing the threat of wildfire in the state. Allocating taxpayer dollars to home-hardening grants, managing water resources to help with fire-fighting efforts and other aims of the Democratic-led legislation were talked about by those lawmakers and advocates for that legislation in a press conference held on March 4.
“As we saw firsthand last January, modern fires are now spreading from wildlands into urban communities, turning our neighborhoods upside down and leaving families scrambling to pick up the pieces,” Sen. Ben Allen, D-El Segundo, said during the March 4 press conference. “This past year has been immensely challenging. Tens of thousands of people remain displaced from their homes. They’re fighting with their insurance for days on end.”
Wildfire bills introduced by both parties follow efforts by local officials in Los Angeles to lobby for legislation that would require private homeowners insurance companies to pay the full cash value of a destroyed house in the event of a wildfire, according to previous reporting by The Center Square.
The California Assembly also passed a resolution in February to request more federal dollars to help with wildfire relief for struggling property owners whose homes were damaged or destroyed in the Palisades and Eaton fires, two of the most destructive blazes in the state’s history.
Republican lawmakers said on Tuesday in response to a question from The Center Square that despite Democratic legislators introducing similar wildfire-related bills this year, Republicans legislators didn’t want to wait to bring forward their own ways of solving problems caused by the wildfire crisis in California.
“We are overdue in bills that bring solutions,” Alvarado-Gil told The Center Square. “This is an opportunity for us to say that we’re not waiting any longer for our Democrat colleagues to bring forward legislation. After what we saw in the SoCal fires, we are years later, without homes being rebuilt in Southern California. We cannot wait any longer.”
