BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 301 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 22, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair AB 301 (Bigelow) - As Amended April 15, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Natural Resources |Vote:|9 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: SUMMARY: This bill requires Cal Fire to notify owners of habitable structures subject to the fire prevention fee that when selling the property, they may negotiate the apportionment of the annual fee with the buyer as one of the terms of the sale. AB 301 Page 2 FISCAL EFFECT: Minor, absorbable costs for Cal Fire to modify the annual bill. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, if a habitable structure changes ownership, the owner of the structure on July 1 must pay the entire fee for the year. AB 301 allows the parties subject to a property sale to negotiate and pay only the portion of the fee agreed upon based on the time of ownership. 2)Background. In 2011 the Legislature passed ABx1 29 (Blumenfield), requiring the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee. The fee, not to exceed $150 on each structure, was to raise $50 million to fund CALFIRE fire prevention activities. In January 2012, the board issued its regulation, establishing a fee of $150 per habitable structure on a parcel located within SRA, with a $35 reduction for each habitable structure that is also within the boundaries of a local agency that provides fire protection services. Revenues from the fee are to be used exclusively for fire protection. In authorizing the fee, the Legislature recognized that individual owners within SRA received a disproportionately larger benefit from fire prevention activities than realized by the state's residents generally. As required by law, the fee was adjusted for inflation and is currently $152.33 per habitable structure outside a fire protection district and $117.33 for habitable structures within a fire protection district. AB 301 Page 3 3)Related Legislation. AB 203 (Obernolte) extends the deadline to file a petition for redetermination of the SRA fire prevention fee from 30 to 60 days. This bill is currently on suspense in this Committee. Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916) 319-2081