A group advocating for a bill that would offer tax relief to fire survivors returned from Washington D.C. this week. Bill HR 176— sponsored by Congressman Doug LaMalfa — would give a federal tax exemption to all who receive PG&E settlement money from the Fire Victim Trust.
The trust was established out of PG&E’s bankruptcy to compensate victims of fires caused by the utility company. It includes survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire, 2017 North Bay Fires and 2015 Butte Fire. Currently, survivors are required to pay federal taxes on that settlement money.
Paradise Town Council member Steve Crowder was among those who traveled to D.C. to lobby for HR 176. Crowder visited our studios Monday to give an update on the trip. He spoke with NSPR’s Jamie Jiang about the background of the bill and his hopes moving forward.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
On the background of the bill
It was introduced last year and it did not make it through to the end. It was reintroduced in the first session in January. We had a lot of positive comments and positive support for it. And so hopefully the result will be different.
On why the bill may not have passed last legislative session
There's a scoring system on all the bills that are proposed. And by scoring, it's how much do they figure it will cost the government to implement.
Again, it's not out of any budget. There's no appropriations that it's coming from that's not getting funded because of it. Again, this isn't even income that's, in my opinion, even owed to the federal government. But unfortunately, that's how bills go through, is in the scoring system. So it doesn't score well and that's what's got to be overcome.
Editor’s Note: The Santa Rosa Press Democratreported in December that Representatives Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, had originally attempted to attach the bill to a $1.65 trillion omnibus spending package at the end of 2022. That effort was blocked by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who, according to The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, opposed any inclusion of tax provisions in the spending bill. Thompson told the Press Democrat that the estimated price tag of lost tax revenue was $637 million, which made the bill more difficult to attach to the spending package.
On whether there will be a refund provided to taxpayers if the bill passes
That is my understanding. This bill will be retroactive.
On whether the bill could pass before tax season
I don't think there's any way it's going to pass by tax season. So, what's going to have to happen is either you're going to have to pay taxes on it now or file an extension. The absolute earliest this bill would possibly pass would be this summer sometime.
On how long the Paradise Town Council has been advocating for the bill
This was proposed early on last year, the state did exempt the taxes, which was great. Congressman LaMalfa has been working on it all of last year and we've been kept apprised of where it was at. It was pulled out … at the end of the year because nobody could agree on it.
It was reintroduced, which Congressman LaMalfa always said it would be, and we're giving it another run. But everybody that we talked to, whether they were Republican or Democrat, seemed to agree that this is something that should be done. So hopefully they can come to, you know, a meeting of the ways and get it passed and get it done. Because it's the right thing to do.
On whether Crowder believes the bill will pass
I'm cautiously optimistic that it will pass.
On the significance of representing Camp Fire survivors in Washington
Well, the biggest thing is we need to rebuild our town. We need population to do it, our population has to have means to do it. Exempting the federal taxes on this is something huge. and that's needed to have them rebuild their lives. And it's the only fair thing for them to do and, again, not unique to the Camp Fire there. They're all facing the same issues that we are. Ours may be a little tougher for people, we had a lot of people that were either underinsured or not insured at all. So it's particularly hard for those individuals to come back and rebuild and they need all the help they can get and this is one thing that I believe that we need to give them so they can move on.
On the stories Crowder has heard from fire survivors
The Camp Fire has been four years. Some of the fires in Sonoma and everything have been even longer than that. And people are still waiting to move on with their lives and close out what happened to them. And nobody's ever gonna forget what happened to them. But, you know, we all need to be able to move on, come home, get settled. And we just need to get all of this behind us.
