California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law on Monday that allocates $180 million for wildfire prevention projects, such as prescribed burns and vegetation management, throughout the state.
It’s the latest funding for fire prevention after the Los Angeles firestorm in January, and just a sliver of the billions of dollars allocated in Assembly Bill 100, the early budget bill for the legislative session that kicked off late last year. The bill, introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel of Encino, also includes a laundry list of Democratic priorities, from electric vehicle incentives to grants for Native tribes in California to investigate cases of missing and murdered indigenous people.
The bill divides up the $181 million for fuels management projects between six conservancies throughout California, including the California State Coastal Conservancy that manages lands in the Bay Area and on the coast. It also doles out $10 million for fire response training for the Karuk Tribe in Northern California. The funds come from Proposition 4, a $1.5 billion bond approved by California voters in November for climate and conservation projects.
Earlier this year, Newsom also approved $2.5 billion to help fund the immense task in the Los Angeles region of recovering from an unprecedented spate of wildfires in January.
“With this latest round of funding, we’re continuing to increase the speed and size of forest and vegetation management essential to protecting communities,” Newsom said in a press release.
California Republicans have long claimed that Newsom and Democrats under-fund wildfire prevention efforts. But Democrats in the state Assembly passed the bill on a nearly party-line vote last week with the support of a lone Republican, Greg Wallis of Riverside County.
That’s because the Assembly’s Republican members were staunchly opposed to a provision in the bill that sends an additional $2.8 billion from the state’s general fund to the California Department of Health Care Services, to cover cost increases associated with Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance provider for low-income and disabled people.
Part of those unexpected costs? More and more immigrants who entered the country without permission are enrolling in Medi-Cal, Newsom administration officials told CalMatters in March.
Democrats and top officials in the Governor’s office have said Medi-Cal is a critical health care provider for California residents who entered the U.S. without permission. California made those immigrants eligible for Medi-Cal coverage last year. State officials recently estimated the cost of this change at $8.5 billion annually, or roughly 4% of the state’s $212 billion general fund spending, CalMatters reported.
A spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Democrat, blamed “chaotic Republican policies” for the additional spending on Medi-Cal, noting that Republicans in Congress are pursuing significant cuts to Medicaid, the national health care provider for low-income residents of which Medi-Cal is a part.
“Last week, Assembly Republicans voted against Medi-Cal funding to help seniors, children and families,” the spokesperson, Nick Miller, said in an email. “Interestingly, that budget bill also included $181 million for wildfire prevention — and California Republicans still voted no.”
The Medi-Cal funding for immigrants “was the big objection that Republicans had,” said Jim Stanley, a spokesperson for Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher.
Even though the GOP largely opposed the bill, Stanley said that the additional $180 million for wildfire prevention is a “step in the right direction.”
Republicans have said that Newsom slashed funding for wildfire recovery and prevention in recent years — an allegation that went viral among conservatives online during the deadly Los Angeles fires.
In response, Newsom launched a website to combat what he described as disinformation and said that the budget for the state’s firefighting agency, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, nearly doubled to $3.8 billion since he took office in 2019.
Notably, the budget bill Newsom signed Monday also includes $16 million in grants to Native American tribes in California to solve cases of missing and murdered indigenous people, as well as additional grants for victims of human trafficking and hate crimes. Plus, it includes nearly $20 million for a state program that helps low-income residents replace their gas cars with electric vehicles or hybrids.
