NPR has reported that irresponsible and incapable California Governor Gavin Newsom cut $150 million from the wildfire fighting budget and was even set to cut more in the future.
“Data obtained by CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom show Cal Fire’s fuel reduction output dropped by half in 2020, to levels below Gov. Jerry Brown’s final year in office,” the investigation noted. “At the same time, Newsom slashed roughly $150 million from Cal Fire’s wildfire prevention budget.”
The LAFD budget was cut by $17 million by the Mayor Karen Bass and a further $45 million cuts were expected just before the fires struck. She was on holiday in Ghana during the fires that destroyed Pacific Palisades and only came back to Los Angeles after officials pleaded with her to do her job, otherwise she would have stayed in Ghana.
The financing summaries for the 2023-2024 fiscal year and the 2024-2025 fiscal year, though, shows the year-over-year difference is closer to $30 million in cuts to the LAFD budget.
The governor Gavin Newsom has misrepresented his accomplishments and even disinvested in wildfire prevention. The investigation found Newsom overstated, by an astounding 690%, the number of acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns in the very forestry projects he said needed to be prioritized to protect the state’s most vulnerable communities. Newsom has claimed that 35 “priority projects” carried out as a result of his executive order resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres. But the state’s own data show the actual number is 11,399.
With all the foliage destroyed in the mountains, the surrounding areas will now be in serious danger to mudslides when rains come. The vast mudslides will endanger many homes and roads close to the mountains. Due to precipitation expected in February, massive mudslides could further compound the already fragile situation. Mudslides occur when foliage has been destroyed as soil is not held together, especially in mountainous regions. Gavin Newsom and his irresponsible negligence and intransigence is the cause of thousands of homes and lives being lost and endangering the lives of Angelinos.
