Work group sets $280 million funding floor, offers mix of revenue options for Oregon wildfire response

At a March 5, 2024 meeting of the Public Safety Subcommittee, state forestry and fire agencies presented the wildfire funding work group report, which identified a funding floor of $280,000,000 and recommended a package of revenue strategies to create a longer-term, durable funding structure for wildfire mitigation and suppression.

The work group — a 35-member panel convened under a 2024 budget note tied to legislative direction in Senate Bill 5701 — concluded that Oregon needs a standing funding approach to cover rising wildfire costs. “By every measure, fire seasons are growing more complex,” said Doug Graff, wildfire and military advisor to Governor Kotek. The agencies highlighted that roughly 1,900,000 acres burned in Oregon during the prior fire season.

The work group’s report, presented by Travis Madema, chief deputy for the Department of State Fire Marshal, and Kyle Williams, Deputy Director of Fire Operations at the Oregon Department of Forestry, stressed four principles: durable long-term funding for both mitigation and response, alignment of funding to costs, shared statewide responsibility, and equity and affordability for communities. “The work group identified a funding floor of $280,000,000,” Madema said.

Why it matters: Agencies emphasized that current ad-hoc funding exposes the state to cash-flow and recovery timing risks and that growing fire seasons will push costs higher. The $280 million number is framed as a floor intended to cover the state’s net wildfire costs and to allow continued investment in readiness, engine programs, staff capacity and landscape-scale mitigation.

Key funding options and illustrative fiscal estimates provided in the report include: - One-time use of the kicker as an endowment: with an illustrative kicker value of $1.8 billion and a 4% draw, roughly $144,000,000 per biennium could be available as a sustained draw. - Bottle bill adjustment: adding a nonrefundable penny on deposits (for example, increasing a 10¢ deposit to 11¢ but returning only 10¢ on redemption) was presented as a long-term, statewide revenue option; the report included revenue ranges for 1¢ to larger increases. - Insurance retaliatory tax: directing the existing retaliatory tax paid by non‑Oregon‑domiciled insurers to wildfire funding was estimated at about $140,000,000 per biennium and described as having a clear nexus to wildfire risk. - Allocation of a portion of ending balances (example: 0.5% of prior biennium appropriations): the report estimated roughly $164,000,000 in a snapshot calculation, but identified durability concerns because this depends on recurring ending balances. - Rainy day fund transfer (one-time): a 50% transfer example was estimated at about $323,000,000 but was described as a one-time, nondurable option. - Lottery dedication: constitutional dedication of a share of lottery revenues was listed as durable; examples ranged from roughly $19,000,000 at 1% up to $97,000,000 at 5% of current lottery receipts.

Work group members stressed that no single option was likely sufficient. “One single solution was not likely going to be successful,” Williams said, describing the group’s conclusion that a blended model across several revenue sources would be needed to meet long-term needs.

The report noted additional avenues for refinement, including surgical changes to existing funding streams and adjustments to how landowners, rural fire protection districts and other stakeholders contribute to protection costs; those options were still under study and expected to be addressed in forthcoming legislation. Graff and Madema said the work group included tribal nations, the fire service, landowners, cities, counties, utilities, insurance representatives and conservation interests, and that four legislative ex officio members — senators Gerard and Golden and representatives Lively and Bobby Levy — were active in guiding the effort.

The agencies characterized the $280 million as a floor intended to cover the state’s net cost of fire seasons and said total need is likely higher as fire risk grows; Williams noted estimates that the true need may be north of $300,000,000 when all readiness, mitigation and gross fire fighting costs are included.

Next steps: presenters told the subcommittee the work group expects legislation will be introduced to carry forward elements of the report and that agencies and the Legislative Fiscal Office will continue to refine revenue and revenue‑risk estimates. The subcommittee acknowledged the informational report and moved on to other items on the agenda.