AB 501

Bill Subjects

Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund High-Speed Rail Authority Rural Road Safety Transfer And Loan

Abstract

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include in its regulation of those emissions the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law continuously appropriates 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority for certain purposes. This bill would suspend the appropriation to the High-Speed Rail Authority for the 2025–26 and 2026–27 fiscal years and would require the transfer of those amounts from moneys collected by the state board to the General Fund. The bill would specify that the transferred amounts shall be available, upon appropriation, to augment funding for rural road safety. This bill would require the transfer of a sum of $2,400,000,000, as a loan, from the unencumbered moneys appropriated to the authority before the 2024–25 fiscal year from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the General Fund. The bill would specify that the transferred moneys, upon appropriation, are available to augment funding for rural road safety. The Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, statewide general election, provides for the issuance of general obligation bonds in the amount of $9,000,000,000 for high-speed rail purposes and $950,000,000 for other related rail purposes. The act requires bonds issued and sold pursuant to the act to be deposited in the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Fund. 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. This bill would appropriate $2,400,000,000 from the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Fund to the authority for the sole purpose of completing the minimum scope of work necessary to meet federal grant requirements and satisfy existing regional commitments, as described in the 2020 High-Speed Rail Authority Draft Business Plan, thereby making an appropriation.