Sacramento – Assemblyman James Gallagher’s (R-Yuba City) effort to make PG&E wildfire victims settlement payments tax free cleared another hurdle today when the Assembly Appropriations Committee passed AB 1249, legislation that would provide financial relief to wildfire victims by exempting them from paying state taxes on settlement payments made out of PG&E’s “Fire Victims Trust”.
Gallagher said, “Victims deserve to receive the maximum amount of compensation possible from PG&E, especially in light of recent reports that the trust might not be able to pay victims the full settlement amounts they were originally promised. More needs to be done, but the least we can do is make these payments tax free.”
PG&E’s “Fire Victims Trust” was created to compensate victims of the 2015 (Butte), 2017 (North Bay) and 2018 (Camp) wildfires. AB 1249 would clarify California’s tax code to allow all types of filers to be excluded from paying state taxes on advance settlements paid out of the trust.
The bill now moves to the Assembly Floor for a vote sometime next week.