State responsibility areas: fire prevention fees.

Existing law requires the state to have the primary financial responsibility for preventing and suppressing fires in areas that the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has determined are state responsibility areas. This bill would require the board, on or before September 1, 2011, to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $150 to be charged on each structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area. The board would be required to adjust the fire prevention fee annually using prescribed methods. The bill would require the State Board of Equalization to collect the fire prevention fees, as prescribed. The bill would require, within 30 days of the effective date of its provisions, and each January 1 thereafter, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to transmit to the State Board of Equalization the appropriate names and addresses of persons who are liable for the fire prevention fee and the amount of the fire prevention fee to be assessed by the State Board of Equalization. The bill would require the State Board of Equalization to collect the fee commencing with the 2011–12 fiscal year. Commencing with the 2012–13 fiscal year, if there are sufficient amounts of moneys in the State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund to finance the costs of specified fire prevention activities for a fiscal year, the bill would prohibit the State Board of Equalization from collecting the fee for that fiscal year. The bill would establish the State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund and would require the fire prevention fees collected, except that portion retained by the State Board of Equalization, to be deposited into the fund and to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for certain specified fire prevention activities, which would benefit the owners of structures in state responsibility areas who are subject to the fire prevention fee, including, but not limited to, covering startup costs, and for the costs of administration, as specified. The State Board of Equalization would be required to retain and expend, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the funds necessary to pay refunds and for its expenses incurred in collection. This bill would require the board, on and after January 1, 2013, to submit an annual written report to the Legislature on specified topics. This bill would permit a person from whom a fire prevention fee is determined to be due to use an appeals process and, if applicable, a refund process that would be established by the bill. The bill would appropriate $1,000 from the General Fund to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection from administrative costs to implement its provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.