BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 301
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
301 (Bigelow)
As Amended June 24, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |77-0 |(April 30, |SENATE: |39-0 |(June 29, 2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY: Requires Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
(CAL FIRE) to notify owners of habitable structures subject to
the state responsibility area fire prevention fee (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.
The Senate amendments clarify that even though the seller's
annual fee may be negotiated as one of the terms of the sale of
a property the total fee liability still remains the
responsibility of the person who owns the habitable structure on
July 1 of the year for which the fee is due.
EXISTING LAW:
AB 301
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1)Requires the Board of Forestry (Board) to classify all lands
within the state for the purpose of determining areas in which
the financial responsibility of preventing and suppressing
fires is primarily the responsibility of the state (these
areas are known as "state responsibility area" or "SRA.")
2)Declares that it is necessary to impose a fee to pay for fire
prevention activities in the SRA that specifically benefit
owners of structures in the SRA.
3)Requires the Board to adopt regulations to establish a fee in
an amount not to exceed $150 (which must be adjusted every
year for inflation) to be charged on each "structure" on a
parcel that is within the SRA. Defines "structure" as a
building used or intended to be used for human habitation,
including a mobile home or manufactured home. Reduces the fee
by $35 if the structure is also within the boundaries of a
local agency that provides fire protection services (this
reduction applies to most structures). Defines "owner of a
habitable structure" as the person that is the owner of record
of a habitable structure in the county tax assessor rolls or
as recorded in the records of the Department of Housing and
Community Development (HCD) on July 1 of the state fiscal year
for which the fee is due.
4)Requires the fee be levied upon the owner of a habitable
structure if that person owns the habitable structure on July
1 of the year for which the fee is due.
5)Requires the fees to be deposited in the State Responsibility
Area Fire Prevention Fund, which is available to the Board and
the CAL FIRE to expend for fire prevention activities that
benefit the owners of structures within the SRA. Limits fire
prevention activities to the following: a) local assistance
grants established by the Board; b) grants to Fire Safe
Councils, the California Conservation Corps, or certified
local conservation corps for fire prevention projects and
activities in the SRA; c) grants to a qualified nonprofit
organization with a demonstrated ability to satisfactorily
plan, implement, and complete a fire prevention project
AB 301
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applicable to the SRA; d) inspections by CAL FIRE for
compliance with defensible space requirements around
structures in the SRA; e) public education to reduce fire risk
in the SRA; f) fire severity and fire hazard mapping by CAL
FIRE in the SRA; and, g) other fire prevention projects in the
SRA that are authorized by the Board.
6)Allows a person to petition CAL FIRE for a redetermination of
whether the fee applies to him or her within 30 days after
being served with a notice of determination (i.e., the notice
from CAL FIRE stating that a person must pay the fee).
7)Imposes a 10% penalty for each 30-day period in which the fee
remains unpaid after the fee becomes final.
8)Allows the Board to exempt from the fee any habitable
structure that is subsequently deemed uninhabitable as a
result of a natural disaster during the year for which the fee
is due, as well as one subsequent year if the habitable
structure has not been repaired or rebuilt.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS:
1)Fire Prevention Fee. In early 2011, the state was facing a
$26.6 billion budget deficit, and an annual structural deficit
of up to $21.5 billion was projected into the future. In
March 2011, the Legislature passed $13.4 billion in budget
solutions (consisting mostly of spending cuts) to address the
deficit; however, there was still a shortfall of $10.8
billion. To help address the budget shortfall, the Legislature
passed, among other bills, AB 28 X1 (Blumenfield), Chapter 8,
Statutes of 2011-12 First Extraordinary Session, which
required the Board to adopt emergency regulations to establish
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a fee not to exceed $150 for each structure on a parcel that
is within the SRA.
2)Billing. CAL FIRE contracts the job of identifying fee payers
to a Designated Fee Administrator (DFA). The DFA contacts tax
assessors in all of the counties with SRA and contacts HCD to
get a list of habitable structures and their owners on July 1.
The DFA then overlays the list of habitable structures with
the SRA boundaries that CAL FIRE provides. The DFA develops a
list of fee payers and provides that list to the Board of
Equalization (BOE) for them to bill. The DFA also runs the
call center that answers calls from fee-payers and also
processes petitions for redetermination (appeals) from
fee-payers. BOE does not receive the list of fee payers until
January and when taking into account the appeals process, the
billing process can take until the next fiscal year to fully
complete. This process represents a significant portion of
the $15.5 million in administration costs that was budgeted
for 2014-15.
Analysis Prepared by:
Michael Jarred / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092 FN:
0001107