Two lawmakers have pitched their bipartisan proposal for resolving some of Oregon’s wildfire funding struggles.
The legislation — House Bill 3940 — is a mash of options proposed by a wildfire funding work group that looked into the challenges of paying to mitigate, suppress and fight fires. Among those options: adding a surcharge on bottles purchased in Oregon, pulling from Oregon’s tax on out-of-state insurers and moving money from the state’s reserves.
Reps. John Lively, D-Springfield, and Bobby Levy, R-Echo, introduced HB 3940 Tuesday. They’re among lawmakers on the 35-member wildfire funding group that’s been meeting since last summer.
The two lawmakers' approach took the wildfire funding group’s major suggestions and threw them against a wall. Now they’re seeing what sticks. Lively expects the bill to change in the coming weeks, and some components will likely be dropped.
“I think the components are there, it’s a matter of reaching agreement in the Legislature,” Lively said.
The work group formed last summer after a record-breaking fire season that burned nearly 2 million acres and cost $350 million. The group was tasked with identifying at least $280 million in funding for each biennium — since the state operates on two-year budgets — to put toward wildfire prevention and suppression costs.
The proposals listed in HB 3940 could collectively garner $827 million each biennium, according to estimates in the funding group’s report published last month.
The Rail Ridge Fire south of Dayville in Grant County burned across about 135,000 acres in 2024.
Courtesy of Grant County Emergency Management
Lively said he hopes to hold a special meeting with the House Climate, Energy, and Environment committee — which he chairs — to discuss the bill in early April. The timing is tight, since bills that aren’t moved out of committee or shelved by April 9 are effectively dead.
Lively said he’s confident there’s enough time to move HB 3940 along.
“We’ve got to find the solution, and that’s what I’m dedicated to doing,” he said.
The two other lawmakers in the wildfire funding work group — Sens. Jeff Golden, D-Medford, and Fred Girod, R-Stayton — were not immediately available to comment.
Golden has proposed Senate Bill 1177, which would dedicate a portion of Oregon’s surplus fund, known as the kicker, into a trust. Interest from that trust would go toward wildfire programs.
The kicker gives money back to taxpayers when revenues are at least 2% higher than originally budgeted. The wildfire group’s report estimated that Golden’s proposal could raise $144 million per biennium. Redirecting kicker funds has never been a popular idea at the Legislature, since taxpayers are unlikely to support it. Golden’s bill hasn’t moved past the Senate’s Finance and Revenue Committee.