SB 854

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law creates the California Transportation Commission, with various duties and responsibilities relative to the programming and allocation of funds for transportation capital projects. Existing law requires the commission to submit, by December 15 of each year, an annual report to the Legislature summarizing the commission's prior year decisions in allocating transportation capital funds and identifying timely and relevant transportation issues facing the state. Existing law, the Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006, authorizes the issuance of $19.25 billion of general obligation bonds for specified purposes, including $2 billion to be transferred to the Trade Corridors Improvement Fund to be available, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act by the Legislature and subject to such conditions and criteria as the Legislature may provide by statute, for allocation by the commission. Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to, on or before February 18, 2009, report to specified committees of the Legislature a summary of any memorandum of understanding or any other agreement executed between a railroad company and any state or local transportation agency relative to any project funded with moneys allocated from the Trade Corridors Improvement Fund. This bill would instead require the commission to provide that report to specified committees of the Legislature within 30 days of receiving such a memorandum of understanding or executed agreement. The bill would also, commencing January 1, 2011, require the commission to provide semiannual reports to those committees on the status of all railroad projects programmed in the Trade Corridors Improvement Fund program. The bill would make these reporting requirements inoperative on January 1, 2015. (2) The Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006 also requires that $1,000,000,000 of bond funds be deposited in the Transit System Safety, Security, and Disaster Response Account, administered by the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) , for capital projects that provide increased protection against a security and safety threat, and for capital expenditures to increase the capacity of transit operators to develop disaster response transportation systems, as specified. Existing law requires 25% of available funds to be allocated to certain regional public waterborne transit agencies. Existing law requires entities receiving funds from that account to expend those funds within 3 fiscal years of the fiscal year in which the funds were allocated and requires that funds remaining unexpended after those 3 years revert to Cal EMA for reallocation in subsequent fiscal years. This bill, notwithstanding these provisions, would provide that entities receiving an allocation of the funds set aside for regional public waterborne transit agencies, relative to allocations of funds made prior to June 30, 2011, shall have 4 fiscal years from the last day of the fiscal year in which the funds were received by that entity to expend those funds. (3) Existing law requires funds from the Local Street and Road Improvement, Congestion Relief, and Traffic Safety Account of 2006 to be made available to the Controller for allocation to cities, counties, and a city and county, for purposes of the Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006, as specified. Upon receipt of funds, a city, county, or city and county is required to expend those funds within 3 fiscal years from the date that the funds are allocated to it by the Controller, and any funds not expended within that period are required to be returned to the Controller and reallocated to other cities, counties, or a city and county, as specified. Existing law establishes the Highway Users Tax Account in the Transportation Tax Fund for various purposes, including the research, planning, construction, improvement, maintenance, and operation of public streets and highways, the research and planning for exclusive public mass transit guideways, and the construction and improvement of exclusive public mass transit guideways, as specified. This bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county that receives these funds in a fiscal year in which funds from the Highway Users Tax Account are deferred, suspended, borrowed, or shifted, to expend those funds within 4 fiscal years from the last date of the fiscal year in which the funds are allocated to it by the Controller. (4) Existing law authorizes the Department of Transportation to transfer funds among 5 specified transportation funds or accounts as short-term loans, subject to certain conditions and any terms and conditions imposed by the Director of Finance. These provisions are inoperative on July 1, 2011, and are repealed on January 1, 2012. This bill would extend the inoperative and repeal dates of these provisions to July 1, 2014, and January 1, 2015, respectively. (5) Existing law, the California High-Speed Rail Act, creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed rail system in the state, with specified powers and duties. Existing law provides for appointment of an executive director by the authority, who is exempt from civil service and serves at the pleasure of the authority. Existing law requires the executive director to be paid a salary established by the authority and approved by the Department of Personnel Administration. This bill, for purposes of managing and administering the ongoing work of the authority in implementing the high-speed train project, would authorize the Governor, upon the recommendation of the executive director, to appoint up to 6 additional authority employees, exempt from civil service, who would serve in specified positions at the pleasure of the executive director. The bill would require a salary survey to be conducted to determine the compensation for the executive director and additional exempt employees, and would require the salaries to be established by the authority and approved by the Department of Personnel Administration. (6) Existing law requires the High-Speed Rail Authority to establish an independent peer review group for the purpose of reviewing the authority's plans and issuing analyses of the authority's assumptions and the authority's funding plan for each corridor. Existing law requires the peer review group to consist of persons meeting specified requirements and to be designated by certain public officers. This bill would require the initial designations to the peer group to be made by November 1, 2010. The bill would require the peer review group to designate a chairperson and would require the authority to designate a member of its staff to serve as a liaison to the peer review group. The bill would require members of the peer review group to receive specified per diem compensation and reimbursement for travel expenses. The bill would require the authority to provide a specified progress report to the Legislature commencing March 1, 2011, and biannually thereafter. (7) Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation has full possession and control of the state highway system. Existing law creates various programs to fund transportation capital improvement programs and provides for allocation of those funds. Existing law requires the department to prepare an annual budget, as specified for submission to the Governor. This bill would require the department to submit specified supplemental information by May 1 of each year to the Legislative Analyst and to the appropriations committees to substantiate the department's proposed capital outlay support budget. (8) Existing law, the Outdoor Advertising Act, provides for the regulation by the Department of Transportation of advertising displays, as defined, within view of public highways. This bill would enact the Transportation Revenue Partnership Act. The bill would authorize the department, upon approval of the Federal Highway Administration, to enter into an agreement pursuant to a competitive process for an experimental project to plan, develop, finance, maintain, and operate a network of changeable message signs within the rights-of-way of the state highway system, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to allow the person with whom it has entered into the agreement to place advertisements, meeting certain standards established by the department, on the changeable message signs when they are not being used by the department. The bill would require revenues derived from the experimental project to be allocated between the department and the person with whom the department has entered into the agreement and would require those revenues received by the department to be subject to appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would authorize the department to adopt guidelines and procedures relative to advertising on changeable message signs. The bill would require the department to submit specified reports to the fiscal ad policy committees of the Legislature having jurisdiction over transportation matters, and would prohibit an agreement from being entered into on or after January 1, 2014. (9) Existing law requires specified revenues from an increase in the gasoline excise tax, pursuant to Chapters 11 and 12 of the 8th Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2010, to be used to reimburse the General Fund for the amount needed for debt service on specified general obligation transportation bonds, and in the 2010–11 fiscal year, after the reimbursement of the General Fund, requires the sum of $54,167,000 per month to be held in the Highway Users Tax Account for future appropriation by the Legislature. This bill would instead require, in the 2010–11 fiscal year, after the reimbursement of the General Fund for debt service on those specified general obligation transportation bonds, the sum of $63,470,000 per month to be held in the account for future appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law also provides for apportionment by the Controller of a specified amount of gasoline excise tax revenues in the Highway Users Tax Account to cities and counties for local street and road purposes, including revenues from the increase in the gasoline excise tax, pursuant to Chapters 11 and 12 of the 8th Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2010. These revenues, including the revenues from the increase in the gasoline excise tax, are not subject to expenditure requirements and restrictions that were applicable to revenues from the gasoline sales tax that was repealed by the above-referenced legislation. This bill would clarify that the revenues apportioned to cities and counties from the increase in the gasoline excise tax may be used for any local street and road purpose and are not subject to the requirements and restrictions applicable to the former gasoline sales tax revenues. (10) Existing law designates the Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol as the Statewide Vehicle Theft Investigation and Apprehension Coordinator and authorizes the commissioner to establish vehicle theft prevention, investigation, and apprehension programs and to assist local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in combating vehicle theft. Existing law requires the commissioner to submit a report to the Legislature, no later than 90 days following the end of the fiscal year, accounting for funds received and disbursed from the Motor Vehicle Account for the purposes of preventing and enhancing investigative efforts to deter economic automobile theft. This bill would authorize the Department of the California Highway Patrol to retain license plate data captured by a license plate reader (LPR) for not more than 72 hours unless the data is being used as evidence or for a legitimate law enforcement purpose. The bill would prohibit the department from selling the data or from making the data available to an agency that is not a law enforcement agency or an individual that is not a law enforcement officer. The bill would authorize the use of the data for purposes of locating vehicles or persons reasonably suspected of being involved in the commission of a public offense. The bill would require the department to monitor internal use of the data to prevent unauthorized use and to submit to the Legislature, as a part of the annual automobile theft report, information on the department's LPR practices and usage. (11) Under existing law, when the Department of Motor Vehicles determines that an applicant is lawfully entitled to a driver's license, the department is required to issue that license to the applicant. Existing law specifies the contents of a driver's license. Existing law requires that the front of an application for an original or renewal of a driver's license or identification card contain a space for an applicant to give his or her consent to be an organ and tissue donor upon death. This bill would also require the front of an application for an original or renewal of a driver's license or identification card to contain a space for an applicant to indicate whether he or she has served in the Armed Forces of the United States and to give his or her consent to be contacted regarding eligibility to receive state or federal veteran benefits. The bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to electronically transmit to the Department of Veterans Affairs specified information on an applicant who has identified on his or her application for a driver's license or identification card that he or she has served in the Armed Forces of the United States and consents to being contacted about veterans benefits. (12) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.