SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- New information on a heated debate over whether people should have to pay California's new fire fee.
Central Coast News has been telling you how people have been trying to fight it and now a state lawmaker wants to repeal it.
Assemblyman Mike Morrell, (R) Rancho Cucamonga, said 800,000 property owners, including thousands here on the Central Coast, are being charged an unfair fire prevention fee.
He introduced a bill to get rid of the yearly fire protection fee from the state.
Most people are charged $115, but some have to pay $150, depending on whether their community has enhanced fire services in their area, outside of Cal Fire.
The fee was handed down last year by the Legislature for people who live in rural areas that rely on Cal Fire for fire prevention and protection.
Morrell said many of those areas are already protected by city and county fire agencies, and that the fee is unnecessary.
Cal Fire was loaned money from the state's General Fund until the first fire fees were collected.
Now that it's all caught up, the fees collected this year will be used moving forward for fire prevention services.
