Wildfire response and preparation have been wildly inadequate in California’s legislature.
My Senate Republican colleagues and I have introduced various legislative measures, focusing on practical solutions, efficiency, and assistance to ensure these fires can be fought diligently, and the aftermath gets a response focused on residents’ ability to rebuild and recover.
While some of these measures were developed long before this year’s incidents, they remain relevant in the broader conversation of how we can better deal with wildfires in our great state.
- 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.
- Assembly Bill 429 (Hardwick/Dahle): Exempts wildfire payments from income tax and allows victims of the 2021 Dixie Fire, the 2022 Mill Fire, and the 2024 Park Fire to receive the full payment they are owed.
- Senate Bill 375 (Grove): Provides a comprehensive approach to wildfire preparedness and cuts bureaucratic red tape by exempting critical safety projects from CEQA, the Coastal Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
- 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.
These bills mark the foundation of a comprehensive wildfire package, one that we will continue to discuss and add to throughout the legislative session.
Now is the time to act and ensure California is better prepared for future wildfire incidents.
Thank you for this opportunity to be of service.