(1) Existing law establishes the Aeronautics Account in the State Transportation Fund, and continuously appropriates the moneys in the account for expenditure for airport purposes by the Division of Aeronautics within the Department of Transportation and the California Transportation Commission. Existing law establishes the California Aid to Airports Program under which the department provides grants to political subdivisions for the planning, acquisition, construction, improvement, maintenance, or operation of a publicly owned airport, and to cities or counties on behalf of any privately owned, public use airport, as specified.
Existing law establishes a subaccount, referred to by the Department of Finance as the Local Airport Loan Account, in the Aeronautics Account in the State Transportation Fund for the management of
funds for loans to local entities for airport purposes and requires that all funds for airport loans in the Special Deposit Fund be transferred to the subaccount. Existing law requires the department, with the approval of the Department of Finance, to deposit in the subaccount all money received by the department from repayments of, and interest on, existing and future airport loans, and authorizes, upon appropriation, the transfer of additional funds from the Aeronautics Account in the State Transportation Fund to the subaccount as the department deems appropriate.
This bill would authorize, upon a determination by the department that the balance in the subaccount exceeds projected needs, the transfer of funds from the subaccount to the Aeronautics Account to fund the California Aid to Airports Program with the approval of the California Transportation Commission and the Department of Finance. The bill would require that the transfers not reduce the amount of funds
in the subaccount below $5,000,000.
By authorizing the transfer of moneys into a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.
(2) Existing law requires certain moneys attributable to taxes imposed upon distribution of motor vehicle fuel related to specified off-highway motor vehicles and off-highway vehicle activities to be transferred monthly from the Motor Vehicle Fuel Account to the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund according to a specified calculation that the Department of Transportation, in cooperation with the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Motor Vehicles, is authorized to adjust every 5 years, starting in the 2013–14 fiscal year, taking into account specified factors.
This bill would require, in the 2014–15 fiscal year, the Department of Transportation, in
consultation with the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Motor Vehicles, to undertake a study to determine the appropriate adjustment to the amount of money transferred from the fuel account to the fund and to update the estimate of the amount of money attributable to taxes imposed upon distribution of motor vehicle fuel related to specified off-highway motor vehicles and off-highway vehicle activities. The bill would require the department to provide the study to the Legislature no later than January 1, 2016.
(3) Existing law establishes the state transportation improvement program process, pursuant to which the California Transportation Commission generally programs and allocates available funds for transportation capital improvement projects over a multiyear period. Existing law provides funding for interregional and regional transportation capital improvement projects through the state transportation improvement
program process, with 25% of funds available for interregional projects selected by the Department of Transportation and 75% for regional projects selected by transportation planning agencies. Existing law requires funds available for regional projects to be programmed by the commission pursuant to the county shares formula, under which a certain amount of funding is available for programming in each county. Existing law specifies the project costs to be charged against county shares in that regard. If the final estimate is greater than 120% or less than 80% of the amount originally programmed for right-of-way costs, existing law requires the amount to be adjusted at the time of right-of-way certification. Existing law prohibits project costs shown in the state transportation improvement program from being changed to reflect certain costs, including actual right-of-way purchase costs.
This bill would instead prohibit project costs shown in the state transportation
improvement program from being changed to reflect differences that are within 20% of the amount reported at the time of allocation for actual right-of-way costs at the time of acceptance of a project construction contract.
(4) Existing law creates the Active Transportation Program in the Department of Transportation, which combines various bicycle, pedestrian, and other nonmotorized transportation programs into a single program. Existing law provides for funds to be allocated to projects in the program by the California Transportation Commission. Existing law requires the commission to adopt guidelines for an initial program of projects by March 26, 2014, with future programs of projects to be adopted by April 1 of each odd-numbered year, or, alternatively, on an annual basis. Existing law provides for the initial program of projects to cover a period of 2 years, with each subsequent program of projects to cover a period of
4 years.
This bill would require the commission to adopt the 2015 program of projects by December 31, 2015.
(5) Existing federal law, until September 30, 2017, authorizes a state to allow specified labeled vehicles to use lanes designated for high-occupancy vehicles (HOVs). Existing law authorizes the Department of Transportation to designate certain lanes for the exclusive use of HOVs. Under existing law, until January 1, 2019, or until federal authorization expires, or until the Secretary of State receives a specified notice, those lanes may be used by certain vehicles not carrying the requisite number of passengers otherwise required for the use of an HOV lane, if the vehicle displays a valid identifier issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Existing law authorizes the DMV to issue no more than 40,000 of those identifiers.
This bill would increase the number of those identifiers that the DMV is authorized to issue to 55,000.
(6) Existing law generally requires an application for a driver’s license to contain the applicant’s social security account number. Existing law also authorizes a driver’s license to be issued to an applicant who is ineligible for a social security account number but who provides satisfactory proof that his or her presence in the United States is authorized under federal law. Existing law, effective January 1, 2015, or on the date that the Director of Motor Vehicles executes a specified declaration, whichever is sooner, authorizes the issuance of a driver’s license to an applicant who is unable to provide satisfactory proof that his or her presence in the United States is authorized under federal law if the applicant submits an affidavit attesting that he or she is both
ineligible for a social security account number and unable to submit proof of authorized presence in the United States.
This bill would delete the requirement for an affidavit for an applicant who is unable to submit proof of authorized presence in the United States, and would instead authorize the issuance of a driver’s license to such an applicant who indicates in his or her license application, as prescribed by the department, that the applicant has never been issued a social security account number and is not presently eligible for a social security account number.
(7) 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 require the Department of Transportation to report, by January 10, 2015, to the budget and
appropriate policy committees of both houses of the Legislature on the subject of advertising on electronic changeable message signs on the state highway system, and on the feasibility of a pilot project in that regard, including estimates of revenue.
(8) Existing law gives the County of Fresno until June 30, 2015, to meet the maintenance of effort requirement associated with its receipt of streets and roads funds from gasoline sales tax revenues in the Transportation Investment Fund in the 2009–10 fiscal year. Under the maintenance of effort requirement applicable to this now-repealed source of revenues, a city or county was required to maintain annual streets and roads expenditures from its general fund equal to the annual average of its expenditures from that source during the 1996–97, 1997–98, and 1998–99 fiscal years. If a city or county failed to comply with the maintenance of effort requirement in a particular fiscal year, existing law
provided that it could alternatively comply by expending in that year and the following fiscal year a combined total amount that is not less than the amount otherwise required to be expended in the 2 fiscal years.
This bill would give the County of Fresno 5 additional years, until June 30, 2020, to meet this maintenance of effort requirement for the 2009–10 fiscal year, as long as it continues to provide medical services to indigent individuals and undocumented individuals consistent with the eligibility and benefit levels in effect in the 2013–14 fiscal year.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Fresno.
(9) Existing law establishes in the State Transportation Fund the Motor Vehicle Account, which generally consists of
regulatory fees and penalty revenues collected under the Vehicle Code, and requires that moneys in the account that are appropriated for the support of or expenditure by the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Department of the California Highway Patrol be used for carrying out provisions of the Vehicle Code and enforcing any other laws relating to vehicles or the use of highways.
This bill would appropriate the sum of $4,934,000 from the Motor Vehicle Account to the Department of the California Highway Patrol to conduct a pilot project to replace 12 dispatch radio consoles at 2 California Highway Patrol communication centers.
(10) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.