Governor Gavin Newsom, Senate President pro Tempore Toni G.
Atkins (D-San Diego), and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon
(D-Lakewood) announced a $536
million funding plan to help improve
California’s resilience to wildfires.
In a joint statement, the leaders stated, “With California facing
another extremely dry year, it is critical that we get a
head start on reducing our fire risk. We are doing that by
investing more than half a billion dollars on projects and
programs that provide improved fire prevention for all parts of
California.
“Key parts of the Administration’s initial proposal have been
supplemented by legislative ideas that will pay dividends over
the years, such as greater investments in forest health projects,
improvements on defensible space, home hardening against fires,
fire prevention grants, and prevention workforce training. The
plan includes public and private lands vegetation management,
community-focused efforts for prevention and resilience and
economic stimulus for the forestry economy.”
CSAC advocated for an early action package. Counties will see
funding for home hardening and defensible space inspections, in
addition to other forest health and fire prevention proposals.
The budget bills (SB
85 and
AB 79) will be taken up next week. For more information,
please contact Catherine Freeman, Legislative Representative, at
cfreeman@counties.org.
