Good riddance to fire tax
If there was anything good to come out of the Legislature’s passage of Assembly Bill 398 which extends the state’s Cap and Trade law another 20 years, it is lawmakers agreed to suspend the highly controversial, and likely unconstitutional, fire tax.
As part of the bill’s passage, the law which allowed the State Board of Forestry and fire Protection to charge property owners in the state fire responsibility areas, such as Springville and California Hot Springs, a fee on each habitable structure with that money to pay for fire prevention activities.
The new law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday, suspends that fire prevention fee at least until Jan. 1, 2031, with Cap and Trade revenues now used to replace that income for fire protection.
The Howard Jarvis Tax Association has challenged the fire fee, calling it unconstitutional because it was not passed by voters. The law was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor, but anti-tax advocates contend it should have been a vote of the affected property owners, of which there are more than 3,000 in Tulare County alone.
We agree the tax was unconstitutional because the law in this state is property owners must have a say in their taxation, which was not done with the fire tax. We see in Porterville residents given an opportunity to approve an increase for assessments to maintain common landscaping. Some times, they vote against increasing what they pay. But, that is how it should work. Local Assemblyman Devon Mathis (R-visalia) has taken some heat because he voted for the new Cap and Trade law which needed several Republican votes in order to pass. Mathis has explained his vote as both repealing the fire tax and the legislation is less restrictive of what the State Air Resources Board may have imposed had the law not been extended.
Just what the impacts of the new Cap and Trade law will have are unknown and may not be known for several more years. The current law was set to expire in 2020 and the new legislation extends that, with changes, to 2030. It does add new requirements for the state to meet in terms of carbon emissions which some say it will raise everything from the price of fuel to the price of building a new home.
We are pleased the rural property owners who have had to pay the fire tax are getting a break and we hope the rest of the new Cap and Trade law does not have the adverse affect some opponents claim it will have.
And, we hope the court rules the tax was unconstitutional and what those residents have been paying for several years now is refunded.