- Lake County News reports
- Posted On
Chesbro amends legislation to create comprehensive disaster aid fund; bill also would repeal SRA fee
Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D -North Coast) has amended AB 468 so that it would now establish a new Disaster Management, Preparedness and Assistance Fund to provide funding for multiple state emergency response agencies.
AB 468 would also repeal the SRA fire fee.
“This new fund would pay for disaster planning, response, training and equipment for three state agencies: Cal Fire, CalEMA and the Military Department,” Chesbro said. “The fund would also provide resources to local first response-agencies.”
AB 468 would establish a statewide 4.8 percent surcharge on all property insurance policies written in California. The revenue would be placed in the Disaster Management, Preparedness and Assistance Fund.
The SRA fire fee is charged only to residents living in state responsibility areas, which include primarily rural residents as well as residents of some suburban areas.
“The average residential surcharge would be about $48 per policy, which would generate an estimated $480 million per year for the Disaster Management Fund,” Chesbro said. “Florida has a similar disaster fund surcharge on property insurance and twenty-one other states have some type of disaster fund.”
The federal sequestration standoff has already cost CalEMA and the California National Guard millions in funding this year.
“The loss of these federal funds makes this legislation more urgent,” Chesbro said. “California needs to be more proactive in planning and funding responses to natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, tsunamis and floods,” Chesbro said. “A property insurance surcharge would ensure a stable source of funding for the sole purpose of planning and response to these disasters.”
AB 468 is coauthored by Assemblymembers Luis Alejo, Toni Atkins, Marc Levine and Mark Stone.
Also on Tuesday, SB 17, a bill to repeal the SRA fee died in the state Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water, according to Sen. Ted Gaines (R-Rocklin), who authored the bill.
“I am extremely disappointed that the committee failed to pass this bill. It was an opportunity to make things right with the 825,000 Californians stuck paying the illegal tax,” said Gaines in a written statement.
Gaines said two additional bills he’s authored – SB 125 and SB 147 – also would address aspects of what he called “the illegal fire tax.”
SB Bill 125 would exempt a property owner of a structure that is located both within a state responsibility area and within the boundaries of a local fire protection district from having to pay the $150 tax. SB 147 would exempt any property owner located within a state responsibility area who has an income of less than 200 percent of federal poverty level – as determined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines – from paying the $150 fire tax.
Gaines reported that the bills have not yet been set for committee hearings.