Firefighting costs soar amid state budget crisis
The expensive cost of fighting the wildfires over the last week could not have come at a worse time for the state, which is suffering from a major financial crisis. Consider: California has spent $305 million on emergency firefighting when only $236 million was allocated. You know what happens next (from AP):
That budget, which the governor signed in September, also projected a $1.7 billion reserve by the end of the fiscal year, some of which could have been used to help pay extraordinary firefighting costs. Since then, revenues have fallen so dramatically that the state is now projected to end the year with a double-digit deficit that is projected to grow to nearly $28 billion by June 2009. Schwarzenegger called the Legislature into a special session to address the deficit and has proposed filling the gap with $4.5 billion in spending cuts and a 1.5 percentage point increase in the state’s sales tax over three years. So far, Democrats and Republicans have failed to agree to a compromise. They must take action by the end of the month, when several members will be termed out of office.
Also: The Orange County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency in the fire zones.
-- Shelby Grad
