Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Wildfire Fund topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate advances wildfire suppression fund; amendment to tap rainy-day account fails
Summary
After extended debate, the Utah Senate moved Senate Bill 143 (wildland-fire suppression fund) to third-reading while rejecting a proposal to seed the fund with $500,000 from the state's rainy-day fund on a 12–16 roll-call vote.
The Utah Senate advanced legislation to create a wildfire suppression insurance fund but rejected an effort to seed it with $500,000 from the state’s rainy-day fund. Sponsors framed the bill as an insurance-style mechanism to smooth the cost of unpredictable wildland fires for counties and the state.
Senator Leonard Blackham, sponsor of Senate Bill 143, told colleagues the proposal “is basically to establish an insurance fund which allows the counties to put money in the insurance fund basically to try to protect themselves in the event that they have a major fire.” He said the state would match county contributions on a 50–50 basis and that the bill includes a one-time $500,000 seed and a $3,000,000 cap to start the fund.
Senator Barrett proposed an amendment to take the $500,000 seed from the rainy-day fund instead of the general appropriation, arguing the rainy-day account is intended for catastrophes and thus suited to this purpose. Barrett said, “I think, establishing this kind of a fund for fighting fire is a very commendable thing,” and urged colleagues to consider using the rainy-day reserve.
Opponents cautioned against setting a precedent of raiding the rainy-day fund. Senator McAllister warned that tapping that reserve would invite many future claims on the account, saying, “If, if you wanna start raiding the rainy day fund, I'll tell you we'll have the rest of our time being spent to bring up matters that we could use.” Several senators expressed concern that the rainy-day fund had limited resources and competing urgent claims.
A roll-call vote on the Baird amendment to use the rainy-day fund failed 12–16 with one absent. After the defeat of the amendment, Senator Blackham proposed exploring alternative seed funding and moving the bill on to third-reading so counties and the sponsor could continue discussions; the Senate placed SB 143 on the third-reading calendar.
The bill’s next steps include possible technical changes to funding language and further consultation with county officials about participation and the formula for contributions. The sponsor said he would meet with counties and consider removing the one-time appropriation if necessary to secure broader support.
