Fire budget was cut by Newsom by $100 million before Los Angeles wildfires: report

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom cut wildfire and forest resilience funding by over $100 million, according to reports.

The budget, which was signed in June of 2024, months before the wildfires in the Los Angeles area that began earlier this week, cut $101 million from seven "wildfire and forest resilience" programs, according to Fox News.

As of Saturday morning, 12,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, there are 11 confirmed deaths and 13 missing people, and about 166,000 people are still under mandatory evacuation orders, according to the LA Times and a Saturday morning news conference.

Firefighters have struggled to contain the fires as many fire hydrants have lacked water to pump and a reservoir has been out of commission. 

Among the budget cuts, according to the outlet, were $28 million from "multiple state conservancies that expand wildfire resilience," $12 million from a "home hardening" experiment that would protect homes from wildfires, and $8 million from "monitoring and research spending, mostly dedicated to Cal Fire and state universities."

The California National Guard and U.S. military have been activated to help firefighters stop fires and stop ongoing looting. 

A spokesperson for Newsom called the reported budget cuts a "ridiculous lie," in a statement to Fox News Digital Friday night.

"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."