RCRC opposes Senate Bill 1404, authored by Senator Henry Stern (D-Calabasas), which seeks to go back on agreements made in the 2017 Cap-and-Trade reauthorization by reinstating the State Responsibility Area (SRA) fee.
Specifically, SB 1404 would remove the suspension of the SRA fee from state law and reinstate it beginning in 2027 until at least 2031. The SRA fee was first instituted in 2011 and was discontinued in 2017 by the California Legislature on the condition of continuing the Cap-and-Trade program, now known as Cap-and-Invest. The fee assessed up to $150 for each habitable structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area, with the money going to CAL FIRE.
California’s residents in the wildland urban interface (WUI) are already grappling with affordability issues surrounding property insurance and home hardening. Beyond that, implementation of the original SRA fee was a logistical and administrative disaster. Homeowners who did not even live in the SRA were routinely charged fees, while upfront costs to launch the program approached $15 million—nearly 19 percent of the total revenue of the program. Additionally, many rural county residents already pay for local fire services, even if they have no CAL FIRE presence in their areas at all.
RCRC strongly opposes SB 1404 because it further increases concerns over affordability for California residents in the WUI, by levying this fee again. Additionally, reinstituting the SRA is a wholesale violation of the 2017 Cap-and-Trade agreement, especially when the proposed new version would fund other projects that do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
SB 1404 will be heard next Tuesday, April 14, in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. RCRC’s most recent letter, in coalition with CSAC, can be found HERE.
For additional information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate, Staci Heaton.