AB 9

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law and the Diesel Fuel Tax Law each impose a tax at the rate of $0.18 per gallon on the removal, entry, sale, delivery, or specified use of motor vehicle fuel, commonly referred to as gasoline, and including aviation gasoline, and diesel fuel. Article XIX of the California Constitution requires state-imposed excise tax revenues from fuel used in motor vehicles upon public streets and highways to be used solely for highway and mass transit guideway purposes. This bill would require new revenues from an increase in those taxes to first be used to reimburse the General Fund for the amount needed for debt service on specified general obligation transportation bonds, with 44% of remaining revenues to be transferred to the State Highway Account to fund projects in the state transportation improvement program (STIP) , 12% to be transferred to the State Highway Account for the State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP) , and the remaining 44% to be apportioned to cities and counties for local street and road purposes pursuant to a specified formula, thereby resulting in an appropriation. However, in the 2010–11 fiscal year, after the reimbursement of the General Fund for debt service, approximately $650,000,000 would be retained for future appropriation and 50% of the remaining revenues would be allocated to the STIP and 50% would be allocated to local streets and roads. (2) Existing law, pursuant to Proposition 116 of 1990, creates the Public Transportation Account as a trust fund, with revenues in the account to be used solely for mass transportation and transportation planning purposes, and requires revenues from specified portions of the state sales and use tax on the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, motor vehicle fuel and diesel fuel to be transferred to the account. Existing law also requires revenues deposited in the State Highway Account from various miscellaneous sources that are not subject to Article XIX of the California Constitution to be transferred to the Public Transportation Account. This bill would eliminate the transfer of miscellaneous revenues from the State Highway Account to the Public Transportation Account in the 2010–11 fiscal year, and would instead transfer those revenues to the Transportation Debt Service Fund for reimbursement of the General Fund for payment of current year debt service for specified general obligation rail and transit bonds. The bill would require the Controller to retransfer to the State Highway Account $78,903,000 from the Public Transportation Account that was transferred to that account in the 2009–10 fiscal year from the miscellaneous revenues in the State Highway Account, and to transfer those revenues from the State Highway Account to the Transportation Debt Service Fund for reimbursement for current year debt service on specified general obligation rail and transit bonds. The bill would also reduce the amount to be transferred during the 2009–10 fiscal year from the Public Transportation Account to the Transportation Debt Service Fund for reimbursement of the General Fund for specified general obligation rail and transit bonds from $225,044,000 to $142,058,000. The bill, in the 2010–11 fiscal year, would transfer $254,222,000 from the Public Transportation Account to the Transportation Debt Service Fund for reimbursement of the General Fund for payment of current year debt service for specified general obligation rail and transit bonds. (3) Existing law specifies the authorized expenditures from the Public Transportation Account. Existing law creates the State Transit Assistance Program as one of the eligible transit programs to be funded with 50% of specified revenues in the account. The program provides grants to eligible local agencies under 2 different formulas. Existing law, however, suspends the program for the 2009–10 to 2012–13 fiscal years, inclusive. The remaining funds in the account are allocated to state-level mass transportation and transportation planning programs. This bill would lift the suspension of the State Transit Assistance Program and appropriate $400,000,000 from the Public Transportation Account for the program in the 2009–10 fiscal year under the applicable formulas. The bill would provide for no further funding of the State Transit Assistance Program in the 2010–11 fiscal year. For the 2011–12 fiscal year and subsequent fiscal years, the bill would continuously appropriate 75% of specified revenues in the Public Transportation Account under the applicable formulas to the State Transit Assistance Program and would make the revenues in the account transferred from the State Highway Account available, upon appropriation, only for state-level mass transportation and transportation planning programs, except as specified. Under the State Transit Assistance Program, funds may not be allocated to a transit operator for operating purposes unless the operator meets one of 2 specified efficiency standards, subject to certain exceptions. This bill would suspend those restrictions with respect to allocations for operating purposes made to those transit operators after January 1, 2010, through the 2011–12 fiscal year. (4) Existing law requires certain motor vehicle fuel sales tax revenues commonly known as the "spillover" that would otherwise be deposited in the Public Transportation Account to instead be deposited in the Mass Transportation Fund, for expenditure on various programs and for transfer to the Transportation Debt Service Fund. This bill would repeal the provisions governing the expenditures from the Mass Transportation Fund and transfer any remaining moneys in the fund to the Public Transportation Account. (5) Existing law, pursuant to Article XIX B of the California Constitution, requires a portion of the revenues from the sales and use tax on motor vehicle fuel to be deposited in the Transportation Investment Fund to be used for specified highway, local street and road, and mass transportation purposes. This bill would, on and after July 1, 2010, transfer any remaining obligations of the Transportation Investment Fund that cannot be funded with revenues in that fund, to the State Highway Account. (6) The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on January 8, 2010. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 8, 2010, pursuant to the California Constitution.