California rushes in billions in aid for Los Angeles wildfire recovery

As recovery efforts begin for the Palisades and Eaton fires, the California Legislature passed a set of bills Thursday to expedite $2.5 billion in “bridge funding” designed to help state and local agencies respond to relief efforts.

The bills passed unanimously in both the Assembly and Senate as part of an extended special session called by Gov. Gavin Newsom in response to wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Newsom is expected to quickly sign the bills, releasing the money immediately.

The bills are part of “a much larger conversation that we’re going to have to have about rebuilding and rebuilding these devastated communities and also about how we protect communities in the state of California,” said Jesse Gabriel, chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee and one of the few MPs who live in neighborhoods that have been evacuated. “This is the first of many steps we will take in a long journey as we move forward in this conversation.”

The two fires— the largest in the recent wave in Southern Californiatotaling nearly 40,000 acres—killed 27 people, destroyed 12,000 structures, and displaced tens of thousands of people. The initial estimate of the total damage is more than 250 billion dollarsaccording to AccuWeather.

The funding is in addition to other state and federal government relief efforts, such as extending tax filing deadlines and imposing a moratorium on evictions.

The money will come from the state’s economic uncertainty reserve fund, which had about $8.3 billion as of Jan. 10, according to HD Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of the Treasury.

Former President Joe Biden said on Jan. 12 that the federal government would reimburse 100 percent of government funds spent within 180 days. State officials expect $2.5 billion to be reimbursed, even as President Donald Trump repeated threats Wednesday to freeze federal aid.

“I don’t think we should be giving anything to California until they let the water flow down,” he said in a Fox News interviewrepeating a false statement that the state did not allow water to flow from Northern California for the wildfires.

The funding package includes $2.5 billion to be used by state and local agencies for a range of recovery efforts: sheltering evacuees, hazardous waste removal, air quality testing and to fund safety testing for post-fire hazards such as mud landslides.

The bills also include $4 million for the Department of Housing and Community Development to help local governments expedite building permits, $1 million for school districts to facilitate rebuilding, $250,000 for the Department of State Architect and $750,000 dollars for the Office of Public School Construction.

Lawmakers stressed during Wednesday’s hearings that the state should require detailed tracking of how the money is spent and that the neediest should be prioritized, including Altadena’s historically black community.

“I am deeply concerned about vulnerable communities – those on fixed incomes, those who have lost their jobs in addition to losing their homes, those who will not be able to advocate for themselves or are waiting for a massive payout because they are just tenants.” , said Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Fremont.

Another wildfire broke out near Castaic Lake in Southern California as lawmakers debated the package this week — underscoring lawmakers’ comments that the Legislature should also prioritize prevention. A $10 billion in bonds approved by voters in November to fight climate change includes funding for some fire prevention programs. Bond money cannot be used for recovery efforts, Treasury officials said at the hearing.

Heath FloraRipon Republican and vice chairman of the budget committee, recommended the Legislature reintroduce two wildfire prevention and emergency management bills by Democratic Assembly members that Newsom previously vetoed: One would have provided full staffing of the state fire service throughout the year compared to the nine month fire season and another there will be expedited vegetation management permits.

Lawmakers proposed a number of others bills related to wildfires this session.

“As our chairman said, we still have a lot of work to do,” Flora said. “And these aren’t problems that have emerged in just the last 10 days — we’ve known about these problems since literally 2004.” It’s time to do some things, and I think right now we have the motivation and the ability to do it. “

Stella Yu contributed to the reporting of this story.