Breaking News - California budget firefighting impacts

Governors new budget firefighting impacts: The Governor's 2008-09 budget proposal supports California's ability to prepare for and respond to the wide range of emergencies and natural disasters and significantly strengthens the state's wildland firefighting capabilities for the benefit of all Californians.

Highlights include:

• $3 million General Fund to replace older Office of Emergency Services (OES) radios.
• $2 million General Fund for OES to enhance OASIS, a satellite-based communications system that helps different operational areas and regions communicate during an emergency or disaster.
• $1.6 million General Fund and $1.6 million in federal funds to increase OES staff in order to enhance emergency preparedness, response and recovery operations.
• $1.3 million General Fund to provide 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-per-week staffing at the state's Joint Operations Center (JOC). This will enable the California National Guard (CNG) to rapidly deploy personnel and equipment during an emergency or disaster.

Wildland Firefighting Initiative

The Governor's 2008-09 proposed budget enhances California's wildland firefighting capability to prepare the state for the next, inevitable round of wildfires.

(New Taxes) The Wildland Firefighting Initiative will not be funded through the General Fund. It will be financed through a 1.25 percent surcharge(Tax) on all property owners statewide, amounting to approximately $10-12 per property owner each year.
CAL FIRE ($77.8 million):

• $28.9 million and 1,100 seasonal firefighters to staff all 336 state fire engines with full four-member crews during peak and transition fire seasons.
• $4.2 million and 3.8 positions to install GPS tracking on key pieces of equipment, such as fire engines and aircraft, linked to computer-aided dispatching.
• $44.7 million in 2008-09 to backfill the budget balancing reductions CAL FIRE is taking to its fire protection budget. Restoring these budget-balancing reductions will prevent the closing of 20 one-engine fire stations, 11 conservation camps and 1 helitack base.
• A multi-year expenditure plan to enable CAL FIRE to purchase 11 new, all-weather, 24-hour firefighting helicopters over the next six years.

OES: ($12.1 million):

• $8.1 million in 2008-09 to purchase 26 fire engines as part of the first year of a five-year cycle to purchase and maintain a total of 131 additional fire engines.
• $1.9 million in 2008-09 to backfill the budget-balancing reductions OES is taking to its Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid Response section and its Warning Center/Information Technology/Telecommunications section.
• $1.6 million and 9.2 positions in 2008-09 to enhance response to wildland fires throughout the state.
• $480,000 to fund the increased maintenance and fuel costs of OES' existing fleet of fire engines and vehicles.
  
• The Office of Homeland Security will make grant funding available to ensure that telephone emergency notification is available in all counties that do not currently have these systems. Learn more about this proposal at http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/8396/.

CNG ($9.2 million):

• $4.4 million in 2008-09 and 36 positions to provide 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-per-week coverage and full-time helicopter crews to be able to respond to any emergency situation in California in a matter of four hours or less.
• $2.6 million in 2008-09 to purchase the first of two Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) over two years for the Military Department's C-130J aircraft.
• $2.2 million in 2008-09 to purchase the first of three Firehawk firefighting systems over three years.

This is the official release from the governor's office on his proposals for the 2008 state budget:

01/10/2008 GAAS:12:08 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gov. Schwarzenegger Proposes Budget, Declares Fiscal Emergency, Calls Special Session to Immediately Address Current Year Shortfall