Napa legislators introduce earthquake relief bills

Monday, December 1, 2014

Wolk and Dodd partner to bring relief to earthquake impacted counties

SACRAMENTO -- Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and Assemblymember Bill Dodd (D-Napa) jointly introduced legislation today to aid residents and businesses affected by the August 24, 2014 South Napa Earthquake. Senate Bill 35 extends excess disaster loss provisions to the losses sustained in Napa, Solano, and Sonoma Counties which will allow individual and corporate taxpayers to amend their previous year’s return to claim those losses and generate a refund in the current year.

“SB 35 extends the filing deadline past April 15th for taxpayers to amend their 2013 tax returns to apply losses caused by the earthquake.  It’s only fair that we provide individuals who suffered property damage in August’s earthquake, but don’t yet know the extent of that damage, more time to calculate their losses,” Wolk said. “We must also ensure that the deadlines are the same for California and the federal income tax to avoid unnecessary confusion.”

The Legislature has amended the Revenue and Taxation Code numerous times for past disasters to allow for excess disaster losses for both the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law.  This ensures that taxpayers can apply losses to their prior year tax returns, resulting in a tax refund which can immediately be used to rebuild and recover from the earthquake.

Assembly Bill 18, the first bill introduced by Assemblymember Bill Dodd and co-authored by Senator Wolk, adds the South Napa Earthquake, to the list of events for which the state share of state eligible cost is up to 100% of non-federal financial assistance.

“It would be extraordinarily difficult for the affected counties and cities of the South Napa Earthquake to pay for damage repairs that were not covered by federal and state disaster assistance,” said Dodd.  “It has long been the practice of this state, after previous major disasters, such as the Loma Prieta, and Northridge earthquakes, as well as the 1991 East Bay fire, to fully fund any non-federally reimbursed eligible damage costs.  AB 18 simply continues this well established practice following this most recent disaster.”

Under the California Disaster Assistance Act, the normal state share for project allocations to local agencies is no more than 75% of total state eligible costs.  According to information provided by Napa County officials, the remaining 25% of non-federally reimbursed costs to Napa and Solano Counties, as well as the cities of Vallejo and Napa, could approach $5 million.  Under AB 18 this amount would now be eligible for state funding.

Both bills are urgency measures and are consistent with Governor Brown’s State of Emergency declaration and President Obama’s federal disaster declaration.  They will be eligible to be heard in January when the Legislature reconvenes.

CONTACT: Craig Reynolds, (916) 651-4003, Ezrah Chaaban, (916)319-2004