Gov. Newsom cut fire budget by $100M months before lethal California fires: report

California Gov. Gavin Newsom cut funding for wildfire and forest resilience by more than $100 million just months before the wildfires currently ravaging Los Angeles broke out, according to a report.

However, a review of the state’s annual budgets under Newsom shows that direct spending on fire prevention has increased dramatically over the last six years.

The budget, signed in June and covering the 2024-25 fiscal year, eliminated $101 million from seven “wildfire and forest resilience” programs, according to an analysis according to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office and reported in Newsweek.

The California fires, responsible for destroying more than 10,000 buildings in the Los Angeles area, are still not contained.

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Cal Fire had a $5 million reduction in spending on fuel reduction teams, including funds used to pay for vegetation management work by the California National Guard, the report noted.

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Other changes:

• $28 million cut from multiple state conservancies that expand wildfire resilience
• $12 million cut from a “home hardening” experiment that would protect homes from wildfires
• $8 million cut from monitoring and research spending, mostly dedicated to Cal Fire and state universities
• $4 million cut from the forest legacy program, which encourages landowners to manage their properties
• $3 million cut from funding for an inter-agency forest data hub

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, right, surveys damage in Pacific Palisades with Cal Fire’s Nick Schuler Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, Calif. (Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

Newsom’s director of communications, Izzy Gardon, called the budget cuts a “ridiculous lie,” in a statement to Fox News Digital Friday night.

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“The governor has doubled the size of our firefighting army, built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet and the state has increased the forest management ten-fold since he took office,” she wrote. “Facts matter.”

The devastation of the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Friday, Jan. 10, 2025.  (AP Photo/John Locher)

His office attached statistics that refer to the overall increase in spending and personnel over a number of years since he took office in 2019, as opposed to commenting on the most recent cuts.

A Fox News review of the current state budget showed that the state earmarked $3.79 billion and 10,742 employees for fire protection, a steep increase from the 2018-2019 budget, which allocated just over $2 billion and 5,829 employees for fire protection.

Cal Fire did not immediately respond to a request for comment as of 8 p.m. Friday.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to show that California’s state spending on fire protection has increased since Gavin Newsom became governor.