Senate committee approves shift in revenue authority so state forestry can spend collected fire-reimbursement cash

The Senate Interim Finance Committee on the record approved a request from the State Division of Forestry to increase revenue authority so the division can spend reimbursements it has collected for fire suppression costs.

Casey Casey, State Forester, told the committee, “I’m not here to ask for money. I’m here to ask for authority shift to actually spend the money I’ve brought in.” He told members the division has invoiced about $38,000,000 for reimbursements since October 2024 and has received about $23,100,000 in revenues to date, with roughly $16,100,000 ready to be invoiced and about $19.3 million left to pay in bills.

The nut of the request was an increase in revenue authority so those receipts can be used to pay outstanding fire-suppression bills and to cover near-term incident response costs. Casey said the division recently rehired a lead position and is back to six staff members who will shift work from invoicing to paying bills; the division reported roughly 224 invoices in process. He warned that some reimbursements cannot be finalized until the underlying bills are paid and cited possible limits tied to AB 6 5 61 as a factor in how additional incident costs might be treated.

Assemblymember Watts asked for a timeline on completing the outstanding invoices; Casey replied that invoices and payments were moving but he could not give exact dates because some invoices must wait until bills are paid. When Chair Marilyn Dondero Loop asked how additional incident costs would be funded, Casey said expenditures beyond the current authority “might exceed those amounts in AB 6 5 61” and that historically the division has pushed excess costs into the next fiscal year or separated in-state and out-of-state costs across accounts.

Assemblymember Monroe Moreno moved to approve the authority shift; Senator Wynne seconded. The chair called the vote; members voted in favor and the motion carried. The committee did not read a roll-call tally on the record.

The approval gives the Division of Forestry the spending authority it requested so it can use collected reimbursements to pay outstanding bills and continue closing invoices for the 2024–25 fire season. The division emphasized that invoices and bills change daily and that some incident settlements will continue to be processed over time.

The committee adjourned the item and proceeded to the next agenda presentations.