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The sun rises Jan. 12, 2025, behind a home destroyed by the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles’ the Pacific Palisades community. (AP) The sun rises Jan. 12, 2025, behind a home destroyed by the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles’ the Pacific Palisades community. (AP)

The sun rises Jan. 12, 2025, behind a home destroyed by the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles’ the Pacific Palisades community. (AP)

Amy Sherman
By Amy Sherman January 15, 2025

If Your Time is short

  • California had a budget surplus in 2021 and 2022 and pumped more money into programs addressing forest health and wildfires.

  • Following budget deficits, the state cut $144 million in wildfire-related funding.

  • Cal Fire’s total base wildfire protection budget has nearly tripled over the past 10 years, from $1.1 billion in 2014‑15 to $3 billion in 2023‑24. 

As wildfires caused at least two dozen deaths and billions of dollars in damages, some social media users accused Gov. Gavin Newsom of slashing money to prevent fires.

Many posts, including some by Fox News, stated Newsom cut about $100 million in fire prevention from the state’s budget months before the Los Angeles fires. 

Some of the posts drew information from a Jan. 10 Newsweek article that said Newsom signed a budget in June that cut funding for wildfire and forest resilience by $101 million. California Assembly Republicans made similar statements about fire prevention cuts citing information from the state budget. President-elect Donald Trump posted an article by Breitbart that repeated the $100 million claim, citing Newsweek.

Newsom said it was a "ridiculous lie" that he cut $100 million, a retort he included on his new website, California Fire Facts. But the website didn’t dissect the $100 million; it focused on the big picture of the budget during his tenure, asserting that the budget had grown for California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Cal Fire.

Newsom is right that the budget increased. But it’s not a lie that money (actually more than $100 million) was cut. 

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State fire department budget facts

In 2021 and 2022, California had a budget surplus. The state dedicated an additional $16.3 billion to address issues ranging from droughts and sustainable agriculture to wildfires and extreme heat, said Gokce Sencan, a research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank.

As part of that increase, the state allocated $2.8 billion toward managing wildfires and improving forest health. However, following 2023 and 2024 budget deficits, the state shaved that amount by $191 million ($47 million in 2023, $144 million in 2024). The budget deficit was tens of billions of dollars.

Cal Fire, which oversees about 31 million acres, responds to hazards and disasters, including fires. The department in 2024-25 has about a $4.2 billion budget. (Most of the money comes from state funds but it also includes reimbursements from local departments and the federal government.)

Newsweek’s story cited an analysis by the state's Legislative Analyst's Office, a nonpartisan office that works for the state Assembly, that it said showed the $101 million cut. That office told PolitiFact that Newsweek cited a report that summarized the governor’s proposed budget for 2024-25. 

The proposal included $101 million in reductions to the wildfire and forest resilience funding (see the total in Figure 9). That represented a cut to previous surplus years’ budget agreement that called for one-time wildfire funding that would be spread over a four-year period, from 2020-24, said Rachel Ehlers, who works in the Legislative Analyst's Office.

The adopted budget’s spending plan (see the total in Figure 8) reduced that planned multiyear one-time wildfire-related funding by $144 million. 

"To underscore: These were reductions to one-time augmentations, not reductions to Cal Fire’s ongoing base programs and funding," Ehlers said.

Of the $144 million in reductions, the largest — $46 million — was for a pilot focused on creating hydrogen from biomass through the Department of Conservation. The forest management project’s goal was addressing forest health and wildfire risk in the Sierra Nevada. 

That pilot never got off the ground, Ehlers said. The budget also reduced $35 million for wildfire resilience projects on state-owned land and $28 million for projects undertaken by state conservancies.

Many of the program cuts were small percentage wise. For example, the forest health program declined from $555 million to $552 million, about a half-percent decrease. Prescribed fire and handcrews, which use hand tools to suppress fires, dropped from $134 million to $129 million, almost a 4% decrease. Fire prevention grants stayed the same at $475 million as did fire prevention projects at $90 million. 

Jim Stanley, a spokesperson for the state Assembly’s Republican Caucus, also pointed to the figures showing the proposed $100 million cut and the actual $144 million cut. We asked Stanley whether the Republicans had objected to the cuts at the time. He said that Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said in June 2024 that the budget failed to adequately fund public safety.

In 2021, Cap Radio (a former PolitiFact partner) reported that Newsom had "misrepresented his accomplishments and even disinvested in wildfire prevention. The investigation found Newsom overstated, by 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."

Cal Fire’s budget and spending have grown

Cal Fire’s total base wildfire protection budget has nearly tripled over the past 10 years (from $1.1 billion in 2014‑15 to $3 billion in 2023‑24), according to a March analysis by the Legislative Analyst’s Office before the 2024-25 budget was approved.

Cal Fire’s overall budget also has increased, with its combined budget for fire protection, emergency fire suppression, resource management and fire prevention more than doubling over the past 10 years from $1.7 billion in 2014‑15 to $3.7 billion in 2023‑24. (Newsom’s office sent us similar information showing budget increases.)

The number of staff members working in fire prevention have similarly grown during that same decade rising from 5,756 to 10,275.

Another way to look at Cal Fire is through expenditures rather than the budgeted amount because it’s not unusual for the state to dip into other pots of money to spend more than budgeted for addressing fires. 

The legislative analyst’s office estimated total Cal Fire expenditures have risen during Newsom’s tenure:

In November, California voters approved Proposition 4, which is a $10 billion climate bond that allocates $1.5 billion to forest health and wildfires.

RELATED: What to know about the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget and whether Mayor Karen Bass cut funding

RELATED: Fact-check: Los Angeles fires fuel falsehoods, including by Trump about water management

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird and Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.

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Our Sources

Gov. Gavin Newsom, California Fire Facts, Accessed Jan. 13, 2025

Gov. Gavin Newsom, Governor Newsom signs 2024 state budget supporting fiscal stability and core programs, June 29, 2024

State of California, Budget including Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and section on climate change, 2024-25

Legislative Analyst’s Office, Crafting Climate, Resources, and Environmental Budget Solutions, Feb. 14, 2024

Legislative Analyst’s Office, The 2024-25 California Spending Plan. Resources and Environmental Protection, Sept. 12, 2024

California Legislative Analyst’s Office, CalFire—Implementation of a 66‑Hour Workweek, March 19, 2024

California Department of Conservation, California Department of Conservation’s Forest Biomass to Carbon-Negative Biofuels Pilot Program Program Fact Sheet, Summer 2023

Public Policy institute of California, California Continues to Prioritize Water and Climate Programs Despite Budget Cuts, Sept. 3 2024

Cal Matters, How California’s bursting budget morphed into a $45 billion deficit in just two years, May 16, 2024

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, Statement on Passage of Legislative Democrats’ Budget, June 13, 2024

Cap Radio, Newsom Misled The Public About Wildfire Prevention Efforts Ahead Of Worst Fire Season On Record, June 23, 2021

Newsweek, Gavin Newsom Cut $100M From Fire Prevention Budget Before California Fires, Jan. 10, 2025

Fox News, X post, Jan. 10, 2025

David J. Harris Jr., Instagram post, Jan. 12, 2025

Bulldog Saggy, Threads post, Jan. 12, 2025

California Assembly Republicans, X post, Jan. 10, 2025

President Elect Donald Trump, Breitbart post, Jan. 11, 2025

Mashable, Did California cut $100 million from its fire budget? Yes and no. Jan. 14, 2025

President Elect Donald Trump, Breitbart post, Jan. 11, 2025

Email interview, Rachel Ehlers, deputy legislative analyst, environment and transportation legislative analyst's office, Jan. 13, 2025

Email interview, Brandon Richards, spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, Jan. 13, 2025

Email interview, Gokce Sencan, research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California, Jan. 13, 2025

Email interivew, Jim Stanley, spokesperson, Republican Caucus, California State Assembly, Jan. 14, 2025

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Fact-check: Did California Gov. Gavin Newsom cut $100 million in fire prevention?