Gov. Kotek calls lawmakers into special session to address $350 million cost of record wildfire season

(Update: Adding House Speaker Drazan statement)

Says feds eventually will cover over half the cost, but 'state needs to pay its bills'

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Governor Tina Kotek announced Tuesday that she is using her constitutional authority to call a special session of the Oregon Legislature, to begin on Thursday, December 12, for lawmakers to appropriate funds to pay for the historic 2024 wildfire season.

A record 1.9 million acres burned this wildfire season, far exceeding the state’s 10-year average of 640,000 acres per season and incurring costs upwards of $350 million.

"While over half of the costs will eventually be covered by disaster relief funds from the federal government, the state needs to pay its bills as expeditiously as possible," the governor said in her announcement, which continues in full below:

“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 in order to meet our fiscal responsibilities,” said Governor Kotek. “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.”

The Governor is asking the Legislature to release a combined total of $218 million to the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Oregon Department of the State Fire Marshal to address all costs for the season assumed to date. This includes meeting the state’s financial obligations to small, medium, and large contractors who worked tirelessly to protect and support Oregonians for more than five months.

“Fighting wildfires of the magnitude we saw this season required a tremendous level of resources that even wildfire experts couldn’t foresee,” said House Speaker Julie Fahey (D-West Eugene & Veneta). “Now, 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. Convening now will enable us to do so, and to chart a bipartisan path forward to address our state’s most pressing needs.”

Oregon's wildfires this season destroyed at least 42 homes and 132 other structures, and caused severe disruptions and damage to transportation facilities, utility infrastructure, and natural resource economies.

In July, Governor Kotek declared a State of Emergency in response to the threat of wildfire and invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act a state record 17 times to mobilize structural firefighting resources coordinated by OSFM to local communities and thousands of wildland firefighting personnel and resources coordinated by ODF.

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Oregon House Leader Christine Drazan Statement on Special Session

SALEM, Ore. – With news that the Oregon Department of Forestry was insolvent, and riddled with ongoing bureaucratic dysfunction which left it unable to pay staff or outstanding invoices without loans, House Republicans pursued bi-partisan cooperation to address the state’s duty to pay workers who risked their lives on the fire lines.

"We remain committed to fixing what’s broken in Oregon. The Governor has responded to closed-door calls for a special session with her announcement today. Good for her. While we have had zero communications from the Governor on this monumental challenge, 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. Evidently, the Governor will be communicating via press release rather than a phone call. That is her prerogative.

“Despite this bizarre approach to leadership, 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," said Leader Christine Drazan (R-Canby). "This bi-partisan legislative call for a special session will immediately address those compensation needs—many of which are months in arrears."