Politics

State May Modify Controversial Fire Prevention Fee

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published August 15, 2011 at 3:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 12 years ago.

A controversial wildfire fee passed by the state legislature to help balance the budget could be up for discussion again this week. But legislators may not be able to modify the measure to allow the money to be used for fire protection.

The governor’s office says it wants to amend the $150 per household fee on rural residents because the money is designated for fire prevention rather than fire protection. That means it can’t be used to fight fires, only for programs like brush clearance.

Ron Peterka of Intermountain Volunteer Fire and Rescue said if the law had been written differently, it would have benefited his rural fire protection area around Ramona.

“If we were to take that fee of $150 from the 500 people here in our response area, that money would come up to about $65,000,” he said, ”That would be enough to cover almost our entire budget.”

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Peterka said he’d love to see the fee go to fire protection but he’s not optimistic.

“The reason they put it up as fire prevention is so it was not put out as fire protection, “ he said, “and if they put it out for fire protection, then it looks awfully like a tax and they would need a two thirds majority to get it passed.”

Even the fee for fire prevention could be in trouble. San Diego County is among several counties threatening to sue the state if it goes ahead with the plan. A County spokesperson said they are waiting to see how the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection decides to administer the fee on August 22.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.