Assembly panel reviews governor’s Prop 4 wildfire and forest resilience rollout, seeks prioritization

Chair Bennett opened the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 hearing by telling departments the panel would “review the administration's spending plan for wildfire and forest resilience chapter 4 and chapter 4 of, Prop 4.”

The administration presented a multiyear rollout for the climate bond27s wildfire chapter. Steven Benson of the Department of Finance said the governor proposes a $1.5 billion allocation for wildfire and forest resilience in the bond and a $325 million spending plan for 202526#8211;26. "We proposed as part of the governor's budget a multi year rollout for that 1,500,000,000.0 as well as the rest of the bond. In 2526, the proposal is $325,000,000," Benson said.

The 202526#8211;26 package described in the presentation includes funding targeted to a mix of forest health, landscape-scale grants, local wildfire prevention grants, defensible-space and home-hardening efforts, workforce development and other prevention activities. Benson identified several year-one allocations including funds for CAL FIRE27s forest health program, block grants for landscape-scale projects (to be administered by CAL FIRE and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy), local wildfire prevention grants, and payments to conservancies and the Department of Parks and Recreation for forest health and watershed work.

Lisa Lean Maager, Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildfire Resilience at the California Natural Resources Agency, told the panel the state has already put $2.5 billion into wildfire and forest resilience since 2020 and that the new bond money should build on local collaboratives and on tools that make work visible. "We have an interagency treatment tracker now online," she said, noting the administration is refining a public dashboard that shows where work has been done and the types of treatments used.

Daniel Berlant, California State Fire Marshal, said state tracking has produced early evidence the treatments are helping contain or slow fires. "Just last year, we had 45 of our projects that were impacted by wildfires that had a positive impact on our ability to contain the fire or to evacuate residents," he said, and described examples from last year27s Park Fire where treatments reduced fire behavior and aided evacuations.

Legislative Analyst Rachel Ehlers told members the wildfire chapter contains more policy choices than other bond chapters, because some line items are flexible and could be spent on a range of eligible activities. She highlighted the administration27s choice in one CAL FIRE category to split a pot of funds between a new defensible-space program and reforestation, and she urged the Legislature to weigh in on the structure of new programs such as regional project pots and the wildfire mitigation grant program.

Members pressed for clearer priorities and for evidence that treatments produce the most "bang for the buck." Chair Bennett urged departments to provide a comprehensive plan rather than a "piecemeal plan," saying the goal is to "decrease our losses to keep our home insurance rates affordable." Members asked for more detail on how the bond27s 40% disadvantaged-community requirement would be tracked; Steven Benson said the requirement applies across the whole bond and state reporting units score allocations against it.

On home-hardening, officials described a pilot wildfire mitigation grant program run jointly with Cal OES that aims to harden neighborhoods in selected counties and to blend state money with FEMA funding. Robin Fenig of Cal OES said the pilot uses state funds as match for federal hazard mitigation grants and that departments are exploring options such as revolving funds and other match strategies.

Committee members repeatedly pressed CAL FIRE and CNRA for (1) more granular outcome reporting, (2) prioritization criteria that favor interventions closest to structures and neighborhoods, and (3) clearer plans for maintenance funding for constructed fuel breaks. CAL FIRE said recent grant rounds will start flagging maintenance projects for higher priority. The Natural Resources Agency and CAL FIRE also said they are convening the wildfire and forest resilience task force to refine modeling and tools that can help the state evaluate tradeoffs between structure protection, watershed benefits and other co-benefits.

Members also raised questions about several pending allocations the administration had left in a "to be decided" pot; the administration said some of those require more time to design and that follow-up BCPs and reports would be provided to the Legislature.

The subcommittee did not take votes on any items during the hearing; members directed staff and agencies to return with more detailed project lists, maintenance prioritization, and outcome data in subsequent briefings and budget documents.

Ending: The panel signaled it expects continuing hearings and written reports on the bond rollout and on specific program designs before approving larger multi-year commitments.