A state fire prevention account has ended recent fiscal years with tens of millions of dollars unspent despite bone-dry conditions across much of California's wildland area.
The Sacramento Bee reports that the state ended the fiscal year in June with an estimated $43 million in fee money left over for fire prevention.
The state collected more than $300 million through June. The fees came from property owners who mostly pay about $117 a year for each inhabitable structure they own within the State Responsibility Area.
Nearly a quarter – or 173,000 – of the payers are from the North State, where most of land in the foothills and mountains straddling either side of the Northern Sacramento Valley lies within area.
According to the state’s website, the fee was enacted in 2011 to support fire prevention services including: fuel reduction, fire prevention education, emergency evacuation planning, implementation of local and state fire plans, as well as arson investigation.
Officials said they have proceeded cautiously in spending the prevention fee money because they were not sure how much money the fee would accrue.