This year’s state fire-season cost: $4 million

Each year, lawmakers have to authorize payment for costs that have been run up fighting forest and range fires on state lands. This morning, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee approved $4 million in fire deficiency warrants, the first state spending the budget committee has approved so far this session, on a unanimous, 20-0 vote. The amount is relatively low, as the fire season this year was 59 percent of the 20-year average in numbers of blazes, and the acreage burned, 981, was just 11 percent of the 20-year average; the payment is equal to 62 percent of Idaho’s 10-year average, and 84 percent of its 20-year average.