Oregon legislators will meet for a brief special session next month to approve emergency spending to cover bills for this year’s unprecedented wildfire season.
A sign warns of wildfire ahead on I-84 east near Durkee, Ore., July 31, 2024. The Durkee fire burned nearly 295,000 acres over the course of two weeks.
Anna Lueck / OPB
Gov. Tina Kotek announced Tuesday she will call a session on Dec. 12 in order for lawmakers to send $218 million to state agencies grappling with the costs of fires that touched a record 1.9 million acres.
“The unprecedented 2024 wildfire season required all of us to work together to protect life, land, and property, and that spirit of cooperation must continue,” Kotek said in a statement. “I am grateful to legislative leaders for coming to consensus that our best course of action is to ensure the state’s fire season costs are addressed and bills paid by the end of the calendar year.”
Five people with knowledge of the talks confirmed Tuesday morning that legislative caucuses met Monday to discuss the possibility of calling a session. Lawmakers are already due to be in Salem from Dec. 10-12 for interim committee hearings.
The move comes after the Oregon State Treasury recently rejected a $60 million loan request from the Oregon Department of Forestry to help cover unfunded wildfire costs that top $133 million, a development first reported by Willamette Week.
The Legislature’s Joint Emergency Board is the usual vehicle for approving emergency spending in between sessions. But the board doesn’t have enough money at its disposal to cover the costs faced by firefighting agencies like the forestry department and Oregon State Fire Marshal.
“As we approach the end of the year and the holiday season, we need to make good on our commitments and pay our bills so that the contractors who fought fires in Oregon can be made whole,” House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, said in a statement.
Lawmakers are able to call themselves into session with a majority vote in both chambers. More typically, emergency sessions are called by the governor.
Special sessions can be dicey affairs in Oregon. Unlike normal sessions, they don’t come with built-in constitutional guardrails requiring lawmakers to adjourn at any specific point, and there is always suspicion Democrats could use their majorities to bring forward bills Republicans oppose.
Burned brush and earth at the edge of the rangeland the Smull family used to graze their cattle before the fires near Durkee, Ore., July 31, 2024.
Anna Lueck / OPB
There appeared to be agreement among at least a segment of legislative Republicans Tuesday that a narrowly-tailored session to address the state’s wildfire bills is possible — as long as it stops there.
“Republicans welcome the opportunity to solve this problem by ensuring the people who work to protect Oregon communities during wildfire season are paid for their service,” House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, said in a statement.
While lawmakers in both parties have been discussing the possible logistics of a session, Drazan said in a release she first heard of Kotek’s decision via media reports. “We are glad to hear she is willing to allow the legislature to work cooperatively to fix her insolvent agency’s problems, for the first time in the press,” said Drazan, who has had a chilly relationship with Kotek since they served in the House together. “Evidently, the Governor will be communicating via press release rather than a phone call.”
Lawmakers have known for months they would have to take action to address the soaring costs of the wildfire season, but hadn’t appeared to consider a special session necessary.
During a meeting in September, as the legislative Emergency Board approved additional funding for both the Department of Forestry and State Fire Marshal, lawmakers were told both agencies would be back for additional money in December. The plan then, it seemed, was to use money the committee had at its disposal from an allotted emergency fund and a variety of “special purpose appropriations” it can tap.
The question of how Oregon should fund its response to wildfire — both in terms of preventing major fires and putting them out when they arise — promises to be a focus during next year’s legislative session. And it was clearly on lawmakers’ minds during the September hearing.
“It’s time that we actually rethink, or at least perhaps modernize, the way in which we anticipate costs for mega-sized disasters,” state Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, said, suggesting lawmakers give agencies enough money to more proactively tackle fires. “We are now in an era where fires and emergencies are going to get bigger every year.”
State Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, said he’d heard from a wildfire contractor in his sprawling eastern Oregon district who was still owed more than $1 million from the state.
“They called me yesterday. They don’t have enough money to pay payroll,” Owens said during the September meeting. “They’re going to have to go get a loan in order to pay their employees because [the Oregon Dept. of Forestry] is delayed.”
According to the governor’s office, this year’s wildfire season destroyed at least 42 homes and more than 100 other structures. Kotek declared a state of emergency in July because of the fires.
The Legislature’s six-month regular session starts in January.