Gov. Gavin Newsom announced more than $200 million in proposed spending Wednesday for statewide safety enhancements in preparation of wildfire season.
The proposed spending, the bulk of which will be allocated to Cal Fire and the state’s Office of Emergency Services, will be included in the state’s May budget revision, scheduled to be announced today.
If included in the final budget next month, the state would allocate $127 million to the OES for wildfire safety preparations, early warning technology for earthquakes and grants for counties affected by power
shutoffs meant to prevent electrical equipment from sparking fires.
The funding would also support the establishment of a wildfire safety division within the California Public Utilities Commission. The 106-member team would provide 24/7 oversight of the state’s three largest investor-owned utility companies: PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison.
“We are in a place we’ve never been in the past in terms of oversight and accountability and transparency with our investor-owned utilities to help support these wildfire efforts,” Newsom said.
The proposed budget also includes $85.7 million for Cal Fire to improve its surge capacity and hire some 600 additional firefighters and first responders before the peak of wildfire season later this year.
Newsom said the state intends to procure an additional 26 fire engines by July for Cal Fire’s use throughout the state. The state has also begun receiving the dozen Blackhawk helicopters it purchased last year.
According to state fire data, from January 2019 to May 10, 2019, 675 fires burned throughout California. During that same period this year, 1,135 fires burned across the state, according to Newsom. The state also dealt with a relatively dry winter and, as a result, has seen its snowpack fall below its level at this time last year.
Newsom challenged people who are skeptical of the scientific evidence of climate change to come to California once the state’s COVID-19 coronavirus shelter-in-place order is lifted to experience the effects on the state in person.
“Even if you deny it, your own eyes may tell you something very, very differently,” he said. “Observed evidence, not just intellectual curiosity, should secure a new reality that climate change is real, and it’s here and the effects are profound.”
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I don’t think there exists a bigger fool than Newsom. Taxpayers are now required to fund a 106-man oversight team to micromanage the state power utilities to make sure they keep up on their brush clearing duties? So, not only will taxpayers cover the cost of the utilities doing the work, but now we have to cover the cost of a dedicated team of people to make sure the utilities follow through? This team will no doubt be unionized.
Government workers are getting fat in both salary and pensions while the private sector dies on the vine. What do they say about a nation where all the best jobs are with the government?
Newsom just announced he will be making a $6.1 billion cut by cutting education by 13%, and closing two prisons, which means letting more prisoners out early. The only good thing coming out of his proposed cuts is he’s no longer going forward with his plan to offer MediCal to illegals. He will also be cutting state employees salary’s by 10%.
The state has a rainy day fund of $16.2 billion and he intends to spend all of it within the next three years. He also talked about two reserve funds consisting of $8.8 billion which he intends to spend.
Newsom is solely relying on the federal government to help. He said the federal government has a moral and economic obligation to help the state. He is also relying on Aunt Pelosi’s so-called Heroes Act to be passed so the cuts won’t have to be made, and anybody in their right mind knows the Heroes Act will never pass. There is something seriously wrong with the man we call governor.
I hate to see the people of California suffer the consequences of extreme budget cuts through no fault of their own. But, I hate what this governor has done twice as much. I hope the Feds slam the door in his smug face and refuse to give him a dime. Maybe Californians will finally wake up.
Developers want to get their hands on San Quentin land.
Do a search
What did newsom do to death penalty in CA ?
Wants to transfer death row inmates to other prisons.
California gets less money back from the Feds than it pays in.
How about if CA just gets the money that has been confiscated by the Feds to bail out failing poor southern states?
The Feds need to STOP this wealth distribution.
I have no problem with one of the richest States (us) helping out poorer States. But I have a problem with the Governor of a very rich State squandering billion$ then expecting others to pick up the tab. Billion-dollar mask deal? Homeless in hotels? I wonder how many of those homeless they’ve persuaded to fill out voter registration forms? They’ve got an “address” now ….. Step right up and get your ballot, homeless – and remember who put you in a hotel and provided all of your favorite “treats” – for free. Don’t worry about the bills – we’ll just pass it off on someone else.
106 member wildfire safety division team……what a bunch of sh$t!!! Newsom just loves spending other people’s money. And so I’ll say it again, not a single dime, DO YOU HEAR ME?
The PUC is adding a 106 person team to do what the PUC is already supposed to be doing, and what they were supposed to doing all along. Newscum continues to hoodwink the populace, and the California PUC continues there inept, feckless and corrupt ways.
huge bureaucracy being built here. I don’t like it
Even if you deny it, your own eyes may tell you something very, very differently,” he said. “Observed evidence, not just intellectual curiosity, should secure a new reality that climate change is real, and it’s here and the effects are profound.”
Ummmmm, people have something called the internet and TV, Mr. Newscum. What’s your point? What are you really saying?
I have intellectual curiosity that will not secure a new reality until I see the masks for which he spent $1 Billion of our money.
Newsome and his team of “scientists” don’t know how the sun flares affect the climate. They also don’t know magnetic North is changing and may eventually lead to its jumping to magnetic south. It happens very rarely. I bet the underground testing by Kim King un helped by rerouting the magma with his atomic underground explosions.
In any case, I can imitate global warming in my own backyard. Simple. Move the thermometer into the sun. After observing the “experts” these last few years it’s pretty obvious we are in moral decline. Liars!
They are moving the herd. For power and money.
The Fearless Spectator: I’d also like to see the hospital tents at the Pavilion. How much money per month is going towards that? I bet a friend or family member is profetting. We need an audit going back tens years at least. A leveling of the playing field is needed.
@ Justifiable Languor- What are the hospital tents at the pavilion? The Concord Pavilion? I haven’t been out that way and I hadn’t heard anything about that. Is it another one of those Dem knee-jerk reactions, that were completely unnecessary and cost million$? Kinda like the hospital ships that sailed into New York and LA then sat, virtually empty, until they quietly sailed away without media coverage??
SFoh: A week/month ago it was mentioned on this site that hospital tents would be set up at the Pavilion to accommodate the Covid-19 pandemic. As it turned out the numbers were vastly exaggerated. I was willing to forgive the miss judged statistics for a while but in light of all the other “miscalculations”, lies and herding … I can no longer support “scientific findings”.
@Justifiable Languor – Thanks for the info – I hadn’t heard that. I agree that the incorrect models were forgivable before. However, they should’ve learned by now and stopped piling on with their speculative numbers and scenarios. Nobody takes them seriously anymore.
Wow. How did we go from ‘firefighters are gods give them whatever they need’ to ‘screw the firefighters, not one more cent?’ Strange times indeed.
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