On March 20th, 2026, the Wildfire Solutions Coalition submitted the following letter to urge the Legislature to maintain and strengthen California’s commitment to wildfire resilience in the Fiscal Year 2026–27 budget, including increasing investments from Proposition 4 and protecting the $200 million from GGRF for wildfire resilience.
RE: Wildfire Solutions Coalition Budget Request Supports Protecting and Increasing Investments in Wildfire Resilience
Dear Chairs Gabriel, Laird, Bennett, and Reyes:
The Wildfire Solutions Coalition is writing to urge the Legislature to maintain and strengthen California’s commitment to wildfire resilience in the Fiscal Year 2026–27 budget, including increasing investments from Proposition 4 and protecting the $200 million from GGRF for wildfire resilience. The Wildfire Solutions Coalition is a statewide alliance committed to securing long-term funding for wildfire mitigation and resilience. We believe California must invest in proactive solutions that protect lives, homes, landscapes, and the economy—before the next fire starts. The goal of the Coalition is to secure the resources necessary to fully implement California’s wildfire resilience strategies and dramatically reduce the impacts of catastrophic wildfire across the state.
Wildfire risk continues to grow across California, threatening lives, homes, infrastructure, critical natural resources, and the state’s economy. Proactive investments in wildfire risk reduction are among the most effective tools available to protect our state and reduce the risk of catastrophic fires. Every $1 invested in reducing the risk of catastrophic events like wildfire saves more than $6 in damage and cleanup costs, and $22 in future economic losses. Wildfire resilience projects also safeguard drinking water and clean air, protect public health, and ensure a future for California icons like the giant sequoia.
This year’s budget proposal includes $458 million for wildfire resilience, with $141 million from GGRF and $314 million from Prop 4. Concerningly, this proposal would be the second-smallest investment in wildfire resilience this decade—even though it comes directly on the heels of the costliest and most damaging wildfire disaster in state history. Wildfire costs Californians on average $117 billion annually, and in 2025, those costs exceeded $250 billion. It’s not a question of whether we spend on wildfire; rather, it’s a question of whether we invest now in resilience to prevent disasters or wait to respond to them.
To close California’s wildfire funding gap, the Coalition urges increased investment of both Prop 4 and GGRF revenues to deliver community safety, economic stability, landscape health, and watershed protection. Specifically, we respectfully request the following commitments in this year’s budget:
- Allocate $500 million of Prop 4 wildfire funding to meet the urgent need for greater investment in wildfire resilience. While the proposed $314 million for wildfire programs—including local fire prevention grants, defensible space, and regional capacity building—is an important down payment, it is nearly half of last year’s wildfire allocation. Given the pressure on other funding sources, robust investment of Prop 4 dollars this year is all the more important.
- Restore and protect the $200 million from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) that has been traditionally invested in wildfire resilience. GGRF should be prioritized for critical climate resilience investments, while the General Fund is a more appropriate source for funding critical public services such as CAL FIRE operations. The Coalition recommends reducing the backfill of CAL FIRE operations, to the extent additional revenues allow, to support critical climate resilience investments.
The Coalition also urges the Legislature not to pit investments in local fire prevention, ignition reduction, beneficial fire, and forest health against home and structure hardening. Wildfire resilience is built by stacking layers of risk reduction on top of one another, which requires concurrent investment in hardening and defensible space, community protection, and landscape restoration. The Coalition believes there are essential policies the Legislature should act on to not only increase state funds for home and structure hardening, but also to incentivize, finance, and leverage private investment in the same. The state should also continue supporting proven, oversubscribed programs with shovel-ready projects that will save lives and reduce the devastating impacts of wildfires. We ask the Legislature to reject a false dichotomy that would prioritize one essential risk reduction strategy over another, when wildfire resilience can only be achieved through an “all of the above” approach.
Californians are already feeling the consequences of inadequate investment in wildfire reduction: wildfire risk is a leading driver of the affordability crisis, is the number one cause of utility rate inflation over the last decade, and is pushing up insurance rates and destabilizing the property insurance market. In the face of acute and immediate risk to lives, homes, infrastructure, precious natural resources, and the state’s economy, we cannot afford to decrease our investment in wildfire resilience. The majority of Californians strongly support increased state spending on wildfire resilience.
Robust investment now can save us from agonizing post-disaster questions about why high-priority risk reduction projects were never funded or implemented. Given the scale of California’s wildfire crisis, the Coalition calls on the Legislature to prioritize opportunities to scale investment in wildfire resilience and other nature-based climate solutions. Thank you again for your leadership on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Emily Blackmer, Director of Government Affairs, Sierra Business Council
Michael Jarred, Associate Director, The Nature Conservancy
Lucy Blake, President, Northern Sierra Partnership
Julia Bishop Hall, State Legislative Director, Association of California Water Agencies
Adrian Covert, Senior Vice President of Public Policy, Bay Area Council
Marissa Christiansen, Executive Director, Climate and Wildfire Institute
Nicholas Schneider, General Manager, Georgetown Divide Public Utility District
R. Michelle Decker, President & CEO, Inland Empire Community Foundation
Patti Juachon, Senior Program Director, Marin Community Foundation
Justin Caporusso, Executive Director, Mountain Counties Water Resources Association
Rob Lawson, Head of Partnerships, Planscape
Temra Costa, Director, Regenerative Forest Solutions
Seth Schalet, Chief Executive Officer, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council
Ben Friedman, Director of Government Affairs, Save the Redwoods League
Jason Moghaddas, Fire Ecologist and Registered Professional Forester, Spatial Informatics Group
Sean Barclay, General Manager, Tahoe City Public Utility District
Eric Horntvedt, Wildfire Prevention Manager, Truckee Fire Protection District
Nick Goulette, Executive Director, Watershed Research and Training Center
Joshua Golka, Head of State Government Relations, Valley Water