BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 1118 (Berryhill) - Disaster relief
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|Version: April 13, 2016 |Policy Vote: G.O. 12 - 0 |
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|Urgency: Yes |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: April 25, 2016 |Consultant: Mark McKenzie |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 1118, an urgency measure, would provide state
disaster-related relief to local agencies impacted by wildfires
that occurred in Calaveras County in 2015.
Fiscal
Impact: Estimated General Fund costs of approximately $1.2
million, payable over several fiscal years beginning in 2016-17,
based upon preliminary estimates of eligible disaster-related
costs.
Background: The Butte Fire burned a total of 70,868 acres in Calaveras
County last year, resulting in two deaths, damage or destruction
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of 965 structures, and an estimated $300 million in insured
losses, making it the seventh most destructive fire in
California's recorded history. The Governor issued an emergency
proclamation on September 11, 2015, due to the effects of the
Butte Fire. On September 22, 2015, Governor Brown requested
that the Butte Fire be declared a federal major disaster, and
President Obama made such a declaration the following day.
Existing law provides that the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) pays local governments for 75 percent of eligible
disaster mitigation costs for federally-declared natural
disasters. Existing state law, the California Disaster
Assistance Act (CDAA), requires the state to pay 75 percent of
the remaining 25 percent of eligible costs for any
state-declared emergency. Local governments cover the remaining
amount. Eligible costs include local expenditures for debris
removal, emergency work, and repair or replacement of public
facilities damaged as a result of a disaster event.
Existing law, AB 2140 (Hancock), Ch. 739/2006, prohibits the
state share for any eligible project from exceeding 75 percent
of state eligible costs unless the local agency has adopted a
local hazard mitigation plan as part of the safety element of
its general plan. For some statutorily specified disasters, the
state has paid 100 percent of the non-federal eligible disaster
mitigation costs.
Proposed Law:
SB 1118, an urgency bill, would add the forest fires that
occurred in Calaveras County in 2015 to the statutory list of
natural disasters for which the state will pay up to 100 percent
of the non-federal portion of disaster-related costs that are
eligible for reimbursement. The bill also contains provisions
to prevent chaptering-out conflicts with SB 937, which provides
similar disaster-related relief for local agencies impacted by
forest fires in Lake County in 2015.
Related
Legislation: The following measures were intended to provide
CDAA disaster relief to local agencies, but none of them were
enacted:
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AB 18 (Dodd), which was held on this Committee's Suspense File
last year, would have added the South Napa Earthquake that
occurred on August 24, 2014 to the list of disasters eligible
for full state reimbursement of local costs.
AB 1429 (Chesbro), which was vetoed by Governor Brown in 2011,
would have added the tsunami that affected Del Norte County in
March of 2011 to the list of disasters eligible for full state
reimbursement of local costs. The veto message stated the
following:
The state has not paid for a local government's share of
disaster costs since 2006 and this measure would cost the
state over $1 million. In addition, if I sign this measure,
other counties that sustain similar damages would likely
request the same relief -- a precedent that the state
currently cannot afford.
Staff notes that AB 1308 (Cox) and SB 1537 (Kehoe), both of
which would have provided full state reimbursement of local
disaster-related costs related to specified wildfires, were
chaptered by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008, but failed to
become operative because they were contingent upon the enactment
of SB 1764 (Kehoe), which was vetoed. As noted in the above
veto message of AB 1429 (Chesbro), the state has not provided
full reimbursement of local agency disaster-related costs since
2006, when AB 1798 (Berg), Chap 896/2006, added severe
rainstorms in specified northern California counties to the list
of disasters eligible for full state reimbursement of local
agency costs.
Staff
Comments: Payment of local shares of disaster-related costs is
made with a Budget Act appropriation to the California Emergency
Management Agency, based on preliminary estimates. Because the
state attempts to reimburse all claims received in the budget
year, and does not control when claims are submitted, the amount
appropriated rarely matches the amount ultimately required in
any given year. When claims exceed the budget appropriation, a
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supplemental appropriation may be made.
Based upon preliminary estimates of local agency costs
associated with the Butte Fire that are eligible for
reimbursement, the Office of Emergency Services indicates that
the state would pay an additional $1,204,754 in reimbursements
to local agencies by assuming their share of eligible costs.
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