State responsibility areas: fire protection 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 (SRAs) . Existing law requires the board, on or before September 1, 2011, to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount that does not exceed $150 to be charged on each structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area to be deposited into the State Responsibility Area Prevention Fund to finance the costs of specified fire prevention activities. The bill would revise and recast these SRA fee provisions instead to, among other things, require the board to adopt emergency regulations to establish and administer fire protection fees in specified amounts, but not in an amount that would exceed the reasonable costs of providing fire protection services. The bill would require a fee of $1 per acre owned for the first 100 contiguous acres, and lesser amounts per acre for land over 100 contiguous acres, but a total amount not to exceed $3,000 for 10,000 or more acres owned. In addition, the bill would require a fee of not less than $175 for one building or structure on land in an SRA and $25 for each subsequent building or structure, with a $25 credit for those property owners who are located in an established fire protection district. The bill would rename the fund the State Responsibility Area Protection Fund and require this money to be deposited into the fund to provide for fire protection activities, including, but not limited to, the portion of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's costs associated with fire protection that benefit owners of property in a state responsibility area. The bill would authorize the Director of Finance to make a loan from the General Fund to the department and State Board of Equalization to meet cash needs resulting from the delay in receipt of revenues in the fund, as provided. Existing law requires the State Board of Equalization to collect the fee except existing law prohibits the collection in fiscal years, commencing with the 2012–2013 fiscal year, where there is sufficient amounts of money in the fund to finance the costs of fire prevention activities for the fiscal year. This bill would delete this prohibition. Existing law establishes a procedure for a person subject to the fee to file a petition for redetermination of whether the fee applies to that person within 30 days of service upon the owner of a notice of determination. Existing law requires the department to reconsider whether the fee is due and authorizes the department to eliminate the fee upon determining the fee provisions do not apply to the person filing the petition. This bill would instead authorize the department to eliminate or change the fee based on a determination that the fee provisions do not apply or applies differently to the person. The bill would provide that the determination is final and is not subject to review by the State Board of Equalization. The bill would require the State Board of Equalization to use all means available to it to collect past due liabilities, as provided. Among other things, the bill would require the board, the department, and the State Board of Equalization to disclose to each other any and all information obtained for purposes of the state responsibility area fire protection fee, as necessary to administer these provisions. The bill would appropriate $4,372,000 from the State Responsibility Area Protection Fund to the department and the board to implement these provisions. The bill would appropriate $4,900,000 from the fund to the State Board of Equalization for administrative costs to administer these provisions. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. Governor Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 6, 2010. Governor Brown issued a proclamation on January 20, 2011, declaring and reaffirming that a fiscal emergency exists and stating that his proclamation supersedes the earlier proclamation for purposes of that constitutional provision. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared and reaffirmed by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 20, 2011, pursuant to the California Constitution. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.