Senator Gaines on the State 'Fire Tax'

California’s new $150 fire tax is illegal and unfair – plain and simple.
ABx1 29, a bill passed by the Legislature on a simple majority vote and signed by Governor Brown as part of the recent state budget deal, imposes an annual wildfire protection “fee” of up to $150 on property owners in rural areas of California.
I voted against this tax when it came up for a vote on the Senate floor. Many rural property owners already pay local fire agencies for protections so, to me, this is double-taxation.

The new tax affects rural homeowners in State Responsibility Areas that are determined by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), even though their property taxes already contribute to the service contracts that counties have with CalFire.
According to census and CalFire data, the owners of more than 800,000 properties in the state could be subject to the fee. In my largely rural district, it includes more than 140,000 occupied and vacant structures.
This new fee is merely a tax that attempts to sidestep Proposition 26, the initiative passed last June that prevents the Legislature from disguising taxes as “fees” and circumventing constitutional requirements for passing higher taxes.
The answer to fire protection in California is not illegal taxes, but budgets that invest in core government services that protect every citizen in the state – rural, urban or suburban.