SB 16: Transportation funding.

(1)Existing law provides various sources of funding for transportation purposes, including funding for the state highway system and the local street and road system. These funding sources include, among others, fuel excise taxes, commercial vehicle weight fees, local transactions and use taxes, and federal funds. Existing law imposes certain registration fees on vehicles, with revenues from these fees deposited in the Motor Vehicle Account and used to fund the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of the California Highway Patrol. Existing law provides for the monthly transfer of excess balances in the Motor Vehicle Account to the State Highway Account.

This bill would create the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program to address deferred maintenance on the state highway system and the local street and road system. The bill would provide for the program to be authorized every 5 years by the Legislature, and would provide that authorization for the 201516 through 201920 fiscal years. The bill would require the California Transportation Commission to identify the estimated funds to be available for the program and adopt performance criteria to ensure efficient use of the funds. The bill would provide for the deposit of various funds for the program in the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account, which the bill would create in the State Transportation Fund, including revenues from attribute to a $0.10 per gallon increase in the motor vehicle fuel (gasoline) tax imposed by the bill and $0.10 of the $0.12 per gallon increase in the diesel fuel excise tax imposed by the bill, a $0.10 per gallon storage tax on motor vehicle fuel and $0.10 of a the $0.12 per gallon storage tax on diesel fuel imposed by the bill, an increase of $35 in the annual vehicle registration fee, a new $100 annual vehicle registration fee applicable to zero-emission motor vehicles, as defined, commercial vehicle weight fees redirected over a 5-year period from debt service on general obligation transportation bonds, and repayment, over a 3-year period, of outstanding loans made in previous years from certain transportation funds to the General Fund.

The bill would continuously appropriate the funds in the account for road maintenance and rehabilitation purposes for each 5-year period in which the Legislature has authorized the program, and would, for those fiscal years, allocate 5% of available funds to counties that approve a transactions and use tax on or after July 1, 2015, with the remaining funds to be allocated 50% for maintenance of the state highway system or to the state highway operation and protection program, and 50% to cities and counties pursuant to a specified formula. The bill would impose various requirements on agencies receiving these funds.

This bill, in fiscal years in which the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program is not reauthorized by the Legislature, would make inoperative the increases in the gasoline and diesel excise tax rates and the $35 increase in the vehicle registration fee imposed by the bill. The bill, in those fiscal years, would also provide for the deposit of revenues from the $100 vehicle registration fee applicable to zero-emission vehicles, and weight fee revenues, in the State Highway Account, to be used for purposes of maintaining the state highway system or the state highway operation and protection program.

(2) The Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006 (Proposition 1B) created the Trade Corridors Improvement Fund and provided for allocation by the California Transportation Commission of $2 billion in bond funds for infrastructure improvements on highway and rail corridors that have a high volume of freight movement, and specified categories of projects eligible to receive these funds. Existing law continues the Trade Corridors Improvement Fund in existence in order to receive revenues from sources other than the bond act for these purposes.

The bill would transfer revenues from attribute $0.02 of the $0.12 increase in the diesel fuel excise tax and revenues attributable to $0.02 of the $0.12 per gallon storage tax on diesel fuel to the Trade Corridors Improvement Fund for expenditure on eligible projects. As with the remainder of the gasoline and diesel fuel tax increases imposed by this bill, the $0.02 per gallon portion of the diesel fuel excise tax increase would be inoperative in fiscal years in which the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program in (1) is not reauthorized.

(3)Existing law imposes a vehicle license fee, in lieu of property tax, on motor vehicles based on market value, at a rate of 0.65%. Pursuant to Article XI of the California Constitution, vehicle license fee revenues at the 0.65% rate are required to be allocated to cities and counties.

This bill would incrementally increase the vehicle license fee to a rate of 1%, over a 5-year period beginning July 1, 2015, with the revenues above the 0.65% rate to be deposited in the General Fund and used for transportation general obligation bond debt service.

(4)Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to prepare a state highway operation and protection program every other year for the expenditure of transportation capital improvement funds for projects that are necessary to preserve and protect the state highway system, excluding projects that add new traffic lanes. The program is required to be based on an asset management plan, as specified. Existing law requires the department to specify, for each project in the program, the capital and support budget and projected delivery date for various components of the project. Existing law provides for the California Transportation Commission to review and adopt the program, and authorizes the commission to decline and adopt the program if it determines that the program is not sufficiently consistent with the asset management plan.

This bill, on and after February 1, 2017, would require the commission to make an allocation of all capital and support costs for each project in the program, and would require the department to submit a supplemental project allocation request to the commission for each project that experiences cost increases above the amounts in its allocation. The bill would require the commission to establish guidelines to provide exceptions to the requirement for a supplemental project allocation requirement that the commission determines are necessary to ensure that projects are not unnecessarily delayed.

(5)Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to prepare and submit to the Governor a proposed budget and to develop budgeting, accounting, fiscal control, and management information systems to provide budget oversight.

This bill, by April 1, 2016, would require the department to present to the California Transportation Commission a plan to increase department efficiency by up to 30% over the subsequent 3 years, with the ongoing savings to result in increased capital expenditures in the state highway operation and protection program or an increase in the state highway maintenance program.

(6)This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.