We're just a few weeks into the new fiscal year, and the firefighting costs are adding up quickly. From Sacramento Jenny O'Mara reports.
About $120 million dollars was spent to fight fires around the state just in the first ten days of this month. That's according to HD Palmer with the State Department of Finance. He says about half of that has been paid because of the Governor's emergency declaration in several counties.
Palmer: For the balance, since the state has no budget in place, CalFire is having to use charge cards basically, so-called Cal Cards, by which they're putting their bills for their vendors, the people who provide the food, the fuel and equipment.
More than $390 million was spent by the state on firefighting efforts in the fiscal year that just wrapped up last month. In 2003, when the San Diego fires happened, roughly $250 million was spent. Palmer notes there will be some cost-sharing and reimbursements from the federal government.
