PG&E wildfire victims will soon be able to get a larger share of what is owed to them, thanks to a recent influx of $1 billion into the victim compensation trust fund, according to trust officials.
The new payout, effective Feb. 15, will allow victims to gain 45% of claim value, instead of the current 30%.
“The ability to make this increase is due to several recent developments,” said John Trotter - the trustee the PG&E Fire Victim Trust - via a statement. “These include the more comprehensive data now available to the Trust as more and more fire victims’ claims are filed and analyzed.”
In January, PG&E made the final installment on its promised trust fund contribution, adding $592 million to the fund. Also, the trust gained another $480 million through the sale of 40 million shares of PG&E stock. The deal was structured to avoid having to pay taxes on the sale, authorities said.
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Trotter said there had been “significant progress” in paying out claims.
The trust has paid out $1.88 billion to date to more than 35,000 victims, and the new influx will allow that payment to swell to about $2.5 billion.
Under the terms of their bankruptcy, PG&E pledged to pay victims $13.5 billion in cash and expected stock sales.
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The fund had been criticized by fire victims, who complained about slow processing times and administrative costs taken out of the settlement.
“Every day we are forced to hold the stock, leads to more costs and more taken away from victims, for sure,” said Will Abrams, who lost his home in the 2017 Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa. He said the fire victims had to push to get tax relief on the stock sale last year. “Because of errors in the setup of how the trust was established, the tax issue was left unresolved,” he said, triggering unnecessary delays that hindered victim compensation. “It was done on our dime before being done by the attorneys before the trust was established.”
“We recognize that because of PG&E’s bankruptcy, the fire victims have been waiting a long time for compensation,” Trotter said in a statement. “We will continue to move diligently on behalf of the fire victims to attain the highest level of compensation permitted under the Bankruptcy Court orders and the governing Trust documents.”
