Criticism of California Governor Newsom for response to Los Angeles wildfires

A California lawmaker is calling for serious changes to happen in wildfire combat and prevention. 

“There’s a lot of similarities. And that’s kind of part of the issue here, that I don’t know that we really learn the lessons of the past,” Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital.

Gallagher was describing the 2019 Paradise fire that struck his district and said a lot more needs to be done to combat and prevent catastrophic wildfires across the Golden State.

“It’s the same type of catastrophic wind-driven fire. We still see movement of dead and dying timber and underbrush on federal land, in that case, decimated a whole community,” Gallagher said.

A lot of misinformation out there. The TRUTH: CA did NOT cut our firefighting budget. We have nearly doubled the size of our firefighting army and built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet. CA has INCREASED forest management ten-fold since we took office,” Newsom wrote in a post on X. 

Republican Senator Brian Dahle claimed that Newsom had turned his back on the residents of California when he vetoed a bill aimed at protecting fire victims, which Newsom disputes. 

“Friendly reminder: Newsom turned his back on wildfire victims by vetoing my bill, SB 542 — the measure would’ve excluded settlement payments awarded to victims of the 2022 Mill Fire & 2021 Dixie Fire from being subject to income taxes. I bet he plans on TAXING SoCal residents on their settlement payments too!” 

Newsom’s office argued that he “wholeheartedly supports the intent of these bills.” 

“In 2022, I signed legislation that provided similar tax exclusions for settlement claims resulting from catastrophic wildfires that occurred in the preceding five years. In signing those bills, I stated future measures, like these bills, should be included as part of the annual budget process given the General Fund implications. The following year, the Legislature enacted an income tax exclusion for an additional wildfire in the 2023-24 Budget Act. As such, I strongly encourage the Legislature to include these proposals in next year’s budget framework,” Newsom wrote in a previous letter sent to the California State Senate.