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Second year of state fire prevention fee billing begins
State officials are preparing to send out the second year's billing for a fire prevention fee that has been the target of legislative efforts to repeal it.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, reported that it has provided an updated billing schedule to the Board of Equalization for the 2012-13 Fire Prevention Fee bills.
The new bills are set to go out beginning the week of July 15.
The bills will go to owners of record as of July 1 for homes in the 31 million acres of State Responsibility Area where Cal Fire is financially responsible for the prevention and suppression of wildfires.
Bills will be mailed alphabetically by county, beginning with Alameda County.
Assembly Bill X1 29 implemented the fees in July 2011.
The state Board of Equalization said the bills are adjusted annually by the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Currently, property owners are billed $150 per habitable structure located within an SRA, the Board of Equalization reported. If the habitable structure is also within the boundaries of a local agency that provides fire protection services, the property owner will receive a $35 reduction for each habitable structure.
The Board of Equalization said approximately 90 to 95 percent of habitable structures in the SRA are covered by a local fire protection agency, resulting in most bills amounting to $115 per habitable structure.
Cal Fire said the fee “provides a stable source of funding for vital fire prevention activities such as strategic fuel reduction activities, defensible space inspections, fire prevention engineering, emergency evacuation planning, fire prevention education, fire hazard severity mapping, implementation of the State and local Fire Plans and fire-related law enforcement activities such as arson investigation.”
The agency also reported that Gov. Jerry Brown's 2013-14 budget contains new funding for enhanced land use planning, expanded vegetation management activities, and additional defensible space inspectors.
However, groups like the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association have been fighting the fee, which they contend is actually a tax.
Legislation to repeal or change the fee also has been introduced in the state Legislature but so far hasn't been passed.
For more information on the fee, visit www.FirePreventionFee.org .