(The Center Square) – As the number of homes and other structures destroyed by wildfires in Spokane climbed past 900 on Thursday, state lawmakers from both parties are coming together with a plan to cut the red tape in bringing help to those who lost everything.
The Senate’s leading Democrat and Republican on the state capital budget committee are pledging to work together to provide money in the upcoming 2027-29 capital budget for Spokane homeowners devastated by the Aug 1 fire and other parts of Washington.
More than 900 structures have been impacted and that number is expected to rise, authorities said Thursday.
The three fires together have collectively burned about 10,400 acres, or about 16 square miles.
Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, the lead Democrat on the capital budget on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Mark Schoesler, the Republican leader for capital budget on Ways and Means, issued a press releasing indicating they will work with other legislators before and during the 2027 legislative session to ensure there is sufficient state funding and support to help residents who lost their homes to wildfires in Spokane County or elsewhere in Washington.
“My district experienced it about five years ago with the Pine City Malden fires. Now we’ve got it on an even greater level. We also can’t forget hundreds of thousands of acres burned of other lands in the state of Washington, that are some of our forests, our range land, and farmland. We’ve had massive fires,” said Schoesler in a Thursday morning interview with The Center Square.
“My colleague, Senator Trudeau is very concerned, as housing is one of her passions, and there’s a lot of houses to replace in Spokane,” he said.
Schoesler noted that reducing regulations and streamlining permitting to get homes rebuilt will be key.
“That’s absolutely critical. I think there’s pork projects that can wait while we take care of people’s homes,” said Schoesler as a combine passed behind him in the dry wheat fields his family has owned since the 1880s.
“Government is the problem. There is a bureaucracy that needs to join budget writers like me and Senator Trudeau in getting rid of the red tape, getting people back in their homes,” he said.
The Ritzville wheat farmer noted that two years ago, Representative Mike Volz had a bill that would have reduced regulations for rebuilding after fire.
“Unfortunately, a legislator acting on behalf of the extreme environmental groups gutted it and it just wasn’t the help it could be,” he said.
A bill did get passed, but as a release from Volz indicated, “As originally introduced, the legislation would have required local governments to allow property owners to choose which building and energy codes they used in the reconstruction of their properties.”
“However, the bill was amended in committee and the substitute version of the bill calls for making assistance available to local governments, businesses, and individuals to repair or replace damaged or destroyed buildings, but in a proscribed more ‘climate friendly’ way.”
“My heart goes out to all the communities being ravaged by the current wildfires,” said Trudeau in the news release. “Emergencies and disasters are not a partisan or exclusively regional issue, and the responsibility to address them should not be either.
The 2027 legislative session begins in mid-January and is scheduled to last 105 days.