The latest summary of spending from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s massive emergency fire relief fund shows the state is now sending more than $300 million in additional payments to LA City and County, both to reimburse local governments for the cost of fighting and cleaning up from the January 2025 wildfires and to help pay for critical recovery projects.
NBC4 Investigates first reported in May that most of the money in the $2.5 billion fund had been untouched as the June 30 sunset of the fund drew near, and much of the $605 million in allocations that had been approved as of early 2026 had gone to reimburse state agencies for their roles in responding to the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Now, the California Department of Finance’s June disclosure says another $308 million has been released from the fund, and almost all of it is headed to Southern California.
The City of LA stands to receive more than $110 million, including an additional $31,736,000 to reimburse the costs of the initial firefighting and disaster response, $56,249,000 towards debris removal, infrastructure restoration, and to support reconstruction, and $22,200,000 for a home hardening retrofit program, for which details were unavailable.
Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, said Tuesday she continues to seek out every available funding source to aid in recovery and reconstruction projects, and asked the governor’s office to extend the funding deadline as new needs developed.
“The City submitted multiple eligible projects, I urged the Governor to fund them, and the State has now established the mechanism to review those requests,” she said.
“The remaining question isn’t whether we advocated for these projects – it’s whether the State will follow through by funding them.”
The California Department of Finance said in a separate letter July 3 it had approved an additional $9,263,000 for the City — beyond the items included in the June summary — including $343,000 earmarked for repair or improvement of the LADWP’s Santa Ynez reservoir (mistakenly described as the ‘Anta Ynez’ in the letter).
LA County is receiving an additional $191 million, as first reported last week, with the largest share for ‘hazard mitigation,’ the $142 million project to move utility lines underground in parts of both burn areas. The County is also receiving funding to repair and restore public parks in the Altadena area.
Newsom initially described the emergency fund as ‘no strings attached’ — and money that would immediately aid the communities devastated by the fires.
His office later clarified that the fund was much more restrictive, and only available for government projects that were eligible for eventual reimbursement by FEMA.
“While the federal government has abandoned survivors by refusing to pass desperately needed disaster supplemental funding, Gov. Newsom has refused to wait,” said spokesperson Anthony Martinez.
Newsom’s office said last week the state has submitted more than $1.5 billion in reimbursement claims to FEMA for state and local spending related to the 2025 fires.