Gov. Gavin Newsom has finally unveiled his $322 billion state budget, and it’s just as absurd as we expected. A budget is a reflection of your priorities, yet while California burns, the governor’s proposal prioritizes free healthcare for illegal immigrants, $4.2 billion for a fraudulent bullet train to nowhere, and over $150 million in “normalization” and trauma-informed prison programs, including the governor’s luxury “San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.”
The budget also proposes a brand new state homelessness agency, despite spending over $24 billion on homelessness in the past five years with nothing to show for it. This is the definition of insanity.
Californians are concerned with the direction our state is headed. They’re fed up with high prices and unsafe streets. That’s the reason California passed Proposition 36 by almost 70%, despite attempts by the governor and Legislature to keep it off the ballot. Talk is cheap, results matter, and voters have sent a clear message—they are ready for change. Evidently, Gov. Newsom didn’t get the memo.
This disastrous budget is even more insulting as Los Angeles County grapples with the devastation from four major fires. The governor was quick to tout a projected $16.5 billion revenue increase year-over-year when he previewed his budget on Monday. Now, less than a week later, the estimated damages from these fires have already surpassed $150 billion. More than 30,000 acres have burned, thousands have been forced to evacuate, homes and businesses are destroyed, and, tragically, at least ten lives have been lost.
Governor Newsom wants us to believe that this is the “new normal” in a world experiencing climate change, asserting that the state is doing everything it can to prevent wildfires. Let me be clear: this unmitigated wildfire disaster is the direct result of years of failed forest management policies and a Legislature captured by the agendas of radical environmentalists.
California has been under Democrat control for nearly two decades, and this is the result. Our “leaders” have failed us. Governor Newsom’s ongoing special session to “Trump-proof” California is an embarrassment. Instead of spending millions on political posturing, we must fireproof our state. That’s why I called on the governor to immediately convene a special session on wildfire mitigation. We must meaningfully fund fire prevention, reform CEQA, and address our broken insurance market.
Fire prevention has been grossly underfunded. In the 2021-2022 budget, the state allocated approximately $988 million for wildfire prevention. Today, that number has dropped nearly 80% to just $200 million, even though the state typically spends billions annually to fight and clean up uncontrolled wildfires.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other regulatory policies have limited the ability of local governments and fire agencies to clear dead trees and vegetation, including severely curtailing the ability to conduct controlled burns that the state desperately needs. Obtaining CEQA approval can take months or even years, yet legislative attempts to exempt fire-prevention activities from these requirements have repeatedly been blocked.
So-called environmental policies like CEQA have also decimated California’s logging industry, which provides critical forest thinning services. Since the 1950s, logging has declined substantially, with sawmills shutting down and timber removal decreasing by approximately 75% since the 1950s. Since then, the annual average acreage of wildfire destruction has grown over 600%.
Here’s what California’s misguided “environmentalists” won’t tell you: a single year of wildfires in 2020 wiped out nearly 20 years’ worth of California greenhouse gas reductions, and the annual average of black carbon from wildfires pollutes more than 18 million cars would in the same timespan.
Even before this latest round of wildfires, California faced an unprecedented insurance crisis. Many insurers have exited the state, leaving residents in high-risk zones struggling to find or afford coverage. The Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, offers increasingly expensive plans to customers with no other options. By the end of 2024, the FAIR Plan’s total insured assets reached $458 billion—a 61.3% increase from 2023. Over four years, residential premiums rose 199%, while commercial premiums surged 496%.
Pacific Palisades, where the Palisades fire burns, is the FAIR Plan’s fifth-highest risk exposure area, with the insurer liable for up to $5.9 billion in coverage—more than double the amount the plan can currently pay out. Shortfalls in claims will be passed on to other insurers, raising premiums statewide.
The bottom line: many California wildfires could have been prevented or significantly mitigated with better management, policies, and funding. This is a time for accountability and, more importantly, a significant change in fire policy and our broken budget.
Instead of spending billions on illegal immigrant healthcare and California’s doomed high-speed rail, our budget must reflect the People’s priorities. Voters want safety, whether that’s from crime or wildfires, and it is the Legislature’s duty to respond to those demands.
Bill Essayli represents the 63rd Assembly District in the California Legislature, which includes the whole cities of Norco, Menifee, Lake Elsinore, and Canyon Lake, as well as portions of the cities of Eastvale, Riverside, and Corona.