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Sen. Marie Alvarado Gil calls for insurance transparency and funding to boost wildfire resilience
Summary
State Senator Marie Alvarado Gil outlined proposed bills and recent budget actions addressing insurance-market strain, tax relief for firefighting equipment, extension of CalFire training programs and streamlined reviews for small fuel‑reduction projects, and asked residents to press legislators for action.
California Sen. Marie Alvarado Gil told a South Lake Tahoe forum that recent catastrophic fires exposed weaknesses in insurance availability, state funding and the pace of recovery, and she urged residents to back legislative measures to address those gaps.
"We have lived through these fires over and over again and have asked for the government to make whole our communities... this lesson is that we have failed," Sen. Alvarado Gil said, linking recent Southern California losses to a fragile safety net for homeowners and to gaps in state policy and funding.
The senator summarized early-action budget allocations and bills she is sponsoring or supporting: she said the governor’s early-action budget included about $170 million for wildfire response and resilience, including roughly $31 million to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and $23.5 million to the California Tahoe Conservancy. She also described four measures:
- SB 365: Requires reporting by the Department of Insurance to increase transparency about cancellations and rate changes at the California Fair Plan. - SB 696: Would allow volunteer fire departments and fire districts to claim a tax exemption on the sale and use of specialized firefighting apparatus and equipment. - SB 662: Extends the CalFire qualified‑entities program that trains and certifies local assessors to support defensible‑space work and home‑hardening outreach. - AB 687 (co‑authored): Streamlines environmental review for certain small-scale, noncommercial private‑land fuel‑reduction projects to speed implementation.
Sen. Alvarado Gil said the California Fair Plan has asked for roughly $1 billion in support following recent catastrophes and warned that rate increases and cancellations are already pricing some homeowners out of the market. "$10 million is a drop in the bucket," she said of a smaller early-action allocation for resiliency, urging sustained budget commitments to the problem.
Local chiefs at the forum welcomed attention to funding and training. Panelists emphasized that while legislation and money are necessary, local actions (CWPP projects, neighborhood defensible‑space work and infrastructure upgrades) remain critical to reduce immediate risk.
Sen. Alvarado Gil closed by asking residents to contact legislators, participate in public processes and support the bills that would increase transparency, local capacity and incentives for resilience work. She took audience questions after her remarks; none of the measures was voted on at the forum.
