BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1202
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Date of Hearing: April 27, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Das Williams, Chair
AB 1202
(Mayes) - As Introduced February 27, 2015
SUBJECT: Fire prevention fee: fee reduction
SUMMARY: Requires the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection
(Board) to reduce the amount of the fire prevention fee (fee) by
an amount equal to the amount paid to a local fire district
(district) for fire prevention.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires the 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 the 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
AB 1202
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building used or intended to be used for human habitation
(including a mobile home or manufactured home). Reduces the
fire prevention 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 by 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 fire prevention fees to be deposited in the State
Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund, which is available
to the Board and the Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection (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
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.
5)Allows a person to petition CAL FIRE for a redetermination of
whether the fire prevention 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 fire prevention fee).
6)Imposes a 10% penalty for each 30-day period in which the fee
remains unpaid after the fee becomes final.
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7)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.
THIS BILL:
1)Requires the Board to reduce the amount of the fee to be
charged on a habitable structure by the amount equal to the
amount paid by the owner of the structure to a district for
fire prevention services during the year for which the fee is
due.
2)Requires the owner of the structure to provide the Board with
written documentation of the amount paid to the district for
those services to receive the reduction.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Author's statement.
Current practice provides a $35 reduction of the SRA
fee for any property also in a local fire protection
district, and a previous proposal (AB 2474, 2011-2012)
would have provided a dollar-for-dollar reduction of
the SRA fee based on the amount paid to a fire
protection district, regardless of the use of those
funds by the local district.
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AB 1202 recognizes that the SRA fee was intended to
fund prevention activities that mitigate the risk of
wildfires caused by structures in the SRA, and thereby
provides a reduction in the SRA fee in the amount paid
to the local district for fire prevention services.
Property owners who are already paying a special tax
for these services at the local level should not also
have to pay for them at the state level.
2)Background. California's SRA covers over 31 million acres and
includes land in every county except San Francisco and Sutter.
CAL FIRE operates more than 200 fire stations within the SRA,
contracts with other firefighting agencies, and has a proposed
wildland fire protection budget of $1.5 billion for this
fiscal year. The fire protection budget includes, among other
things, fire prevention activities such as brush clearance,
defensible space inspections, fire breaks, and other measures
to reduce the cost of firefighting, property loss, injury to
firefighters, and damage to the environment.
CAL FIRE's fire protection budget has seen a steady increase
over the years and is the largest budget in the Natural
Resources Agency. In 1996-97, CAL FIRE's fire protection
budget was $266 million. This increase has been attributed in
large part to the significant housing development at the
boundaries between wildlands and urban areas, the heightened
risk of catastrophic fires due to fire suppression activities
over the last century, and increased staff costs.
3)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, ABX1 29 (Blumenfield), Chapter 8,
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Statutes of 2011-12 First Extraordinary Session, which
required the Board to adopt emergency regulations to establish
a "fire prevention fee" not to exceed $150 for each structure
on a parcel that is within the SRA. The fee was intended to
fill a hole created by a $50 million General Fund cut to CAL
FIRE in the 2011 budget bill. The 2014-15 Budget appropriated
$76.3 million from SRA revenues to enhance statewide fire
prevention work including, for the first time, $10 million for
local assistance grants to be used in locations where the
effects of drought, fuel loading and structure development
converge.
4)Local fire protection. There are many different districts and
many of them charge the public for fire protection and
prevention. District rates have a high degree of variance
with some less than the $35 reduction and some more than the
$150 fire fee. The fees assessed by districts can also be
assessed by parcel, single family, or by the use of the
parcel. Districts combine their fire protection and fire
prevention services in one fee. In contrast, the SRA fee is
one set amount for the whole state, is charged by habitable
structure, and only covers fire prevention. AB 1202 allows the
owner to provide written documentation of what they pay to a
district to receive a reduction in their SRA fee. The author
and committee may wish to consider amending the bill to
require the Board to adopt guidelines to implement this
provision and clarify what written documentation should be
provided.
5)Prior legislation. AB 2474 (Chesbro, 2012) requires the Board
to reduce the amount of the fire prevention fee (fee) by an
amount equal to the amount paid to a local fire district. This
bill was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
AB 1202
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Support
California Association of Realtors
California Fire Chiefs Association
California Taxpayers Association
Central Coast Forest Association
Fire Districts Association of California
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
Morongo Valley Community Services District
San Diego County Board of Supervisors
Southwest California Legislative Council
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Michael Jarred / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092