15950.5.

 The Legislature makes the following findings regarding the State of California’s commitment to provide equitable transportation services, including an effective and coherent network of transportation services for older Californians and people with disabilities and the right of that population to receive those services pursuant to this part:

(a) Since the enactment of the Social Service Transportation Improvement Act, the number of Californians requiring services under this part has substantially increased without a corresponding increase in services or funding to meet expanding needs.

(b) Despite planning efforts by the state in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2021 to improve these transportation services for this population, there has been no notable progress. The state is stuck in a cycle of study and stagnate. While whole other segments of the transportation system benefit from progress, this underserved population languishes with substandard transportation options.

(c) The aging tsunami brought about by changing demographics has long been forecasted to increase the demand for expanded transportation services for seniors and persons with disabilities. This is a well-documented issue. The Master Plan for Aging indicates that by 2030, senior age groups will increase from 70 percent up to 274 percent. These age groups have cognitive and physical characteristics that either require public transportation services or result in the loss of ability to drive themselves, or both.

(d) Despite the increased demand for services and evolution in the methods for providing those services, services for seniors and persons with disabilities have remained stagnant while other sectors of the transportation system have thrived under improved policies and increased funding. It is clear that the funding mechanism, value statements, and principles contained in this part must be updated.

(e) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Transportation and the California Health and Human Services Agency actively monitor the planning for and provision of social service transportation, as defined by the coordinated public transit human services transportation plan, as described in Section 5310 of Title 49 of the United States Code, to ensure the orderly and systematic completion of improvements.

(f) The Legislature is aware that the public transit industry is consumed with other obligations as a result of climate change legislation, socioeconomic pressures, paradigm shifts in technology, regulatory obligations, and Federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 paratransit requirements, and thus does not have the organizational, operational, or financial capacity to serve this vulnerable population adequately.

(g) The Legislature is aware of a well-documented cyclical legacy of the state studying this issue, identifying solutions, and failing to implement those solutions. The amendments to the Social Service Transportation Improvement Act in the act that added this section are intended to address that legacy by improving accessible transportation as quickly as possible and by ensuring that, in the future, seniors and persons with disabilities will no longer be segregated from the benefits of any state transportation funding program.

(h) It is the Legislature’s belief that the stagnation found in this service area is multifactorial and is a result of lack of funding, political friction as defined in Report 91 of the Transit Cooperative Research Program, organic and haphazard rather than systemic development and funding of accessible transportation systems, and decisionmaking and authority assigned to inappropriate agencies and levels of government, among other reasons.

(i) While the state has made substantial commitments to transportation funding for different modes, these investments have largely excluded services for older persons and those with disabilities, which is incompatible with the growing demand for these services due to demographic and other pressures.

(j) The Governor’s 2021 Master Plan for Aging described the growing population of older Californians as a “seismic shift,” with one out of every four qualifying as “older,” and despite this, the Master Plan included no substantive transportation improvements for the target population.

(k) Victims of wildfires are often disproportionately seniors and persons with disabilities. These tragic outcomes can be related to limited access to quality transportation. Any planning effort intended to improve emergency response for this population requires a significantly improved baseline for accessible transportation services and for an accessible transportation system.

15951.

 It is the intent of the Legislature, through the enactment of this part, to improve transportation service required by social service recipients by promoting the consolidation coordination of social service transportation services so that the following benefits may accrue:

(b) Combined purchasing of necessary equipment so that some cost savings through larger number of unit purchases can be realized.

(c) Adequate training of vehicle drivers to insure the safe operation of vehicles. Proper driver training should promote lower insurance costs and encourage use of the service.

(d) Centralized dispatching of vehicles so that efficient use of vehicles results.

(e) Centralized maintenance of vehicles so that adequate and routine vehicle maintenance scheduling is possible.

(f) Centralized administration of various social service transportation programs so that elimination of numerous duplicative and costly administrative organizations can occur. Centralized administration of social service transportation services can provide more efficient and cost effective transportation services permitting social service agencies to respond to specific social needs.

(g) Identification, braiding, and consolidation of all existing sources of funding for social service transportation services can provide more effective and cost efficient use of scarce resource dollars. Consolidation of categorical program funds can foster eventual elimination of unnecessary and unwarranted program constraints.

15952.

 (a) Centralized administration of consolidated coordinated social service transportation services shall utilize, use, to the maximum extent possible, existing public and private administrative capabilities and expertise. Utilization Use of existing administrative capabilities and expertise shall not require employment of those public and private administrative personnel nor shall it preclude any consolidated coordinated agency from developing a necessary administrative organization.

(b) Efficient and continual use of all existing sources of funding, utilized used prior to the enactment of this part for social service transportation services, shall, to the maximum extent possible, be continued. Social service agencies participating in consolidation or coordination shall continue to maintain funding levels for consolidated coordinated services necessary to meet the transportation needs of their social service consumers. Rescinding or eliminating funding for consolidated coordinated services by any participating agency shall require cancellation of service to the agency’s consumers by the consolidated coordinated agency. Cancellation of the service shall not be required if rescission or elimination of funding occurs because of a program change with respect to the source of funding.

(c) Consolidation Coordination of social service transportation services shall, to the maximum extent possible, utilize use existing agency operating and maintenance personnel and expertise. Effective use of employees of participating agencies shall be achieved without mandating that the employees become directly employed by the designated consolidated coordinated agency.

(d) Consolidation Coordination of existing social service transportation services shall more appropriately be achieved if local elected officials are involved in the process. Local elected officials shall, to the maximum extent possible, be involved in the development of the action plans and other local actions necessary for the successful implementation of this part.

15955.5.

 “Accessible transportation” means a broad range of transportation-related services that are typically provided to persons with disabilities or elderly individuals, and includes a spectrum of transportation, transit, and supportive services, including, but not limited to, city- and community-based programs, transportation provided by private nonprofits, mobility management programs, one-call and one-click programs, volunteer-based transportation programs, travel training, and door-to-door and door-through-door services.

15975.

 (a) The transportation planning agencies and the county transportation commissions shall prepare and adopt an action plan that describes in detail the steps required to accomplish the consolidation of social service transportation services. Funding for the action plan shall be provided from local transportation funds made available under Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 99200) of Part 11 of Division 10 of the Public Utilities Code. Section 99312.8 of the Public Utilities Code. The action plan shall substantiate that one or more of the benefits indicated in Sections 15951 and 15952 are feasible for the services in a given geographic area. The action plan shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

(1) The designation of consolidated coordinated transportation service agencies within the geographic area of jurisdiction of the transportation planning agency or county transportation commission. The action plan may designate more than a single agency or multiple agencies as consolidated coordinated transportation service agencies, if improved coordination of all services is demonstrated within the geographic area. In Ventura County, the county transportation commission is the consolidated coordinated transportation service agency.

The action plan may also specify that the consolidation of some services and the coordination of other services is the most feasible approach, at the time the action plan is submitted, which will provide improved efficiency and effectiveness of those services.

(2) The identification of the social service recipients to be served, of funds available for use by the consolidated or coordinated services, and of an orderly strategy and schedule detailing the steps required to develop the financial program and management structure necessary to implement consolidated or coordinated services.

(3) Measures to coordinate the services provided under paragraph (1) with existing fixed route service provided by public and private transportation providers.

(4) Measures for the effective coordination of specialized transportation service from one provider service area to another.

(5) Measures to ensure that the objectives of the action plan are consistent with the legislative intent declared in Section 15951.

(b) An entity formed by the regional transportation planning authority as a nonprofit public benefit corporation, designated as a consolidated coordinated transportation services agency under this section and charged with administering a countywide coordinated paratransit plan adopted pursuant to Section 37.141 of Chapter Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations shall, for the purposes of paragraph (2) of subdivision (e) of Section 14055 and Part 1 (commencing with Section 810) and Part 2 (commencing with Section 814) of Division 3.6, be deemed a “public agency” within the meaning of “public entity,” as defined in Section 811.2.

15987.

 (a) Funding for this part shall be provided from funds made available under Section 99312.8 of the Public Utilities Code.

(b) For purposes of this part, “consolidated transportation services agency” means “coordinated transportation services agency” and specific activities referring to “consolidation” shall be deemed to refer to “coordination.”

(c) Each county board of supervisors shall, and has the sole authority to, designate a coordinated transportation services agency if one does not already exist in its county. Only the designated coordinated transportation services agency shall be eligible for funding established by Section 99312.8 of the Public Utilities Code.

(d) Public transit agencies shall be eligible for funding under this part only when all of the following are met:

(1) The county board of supervisors, by not less than a two-thirds vote, adopts biennial findings that the allocation of funds is in the best interest of that county’s senior and disabled population.

(2) The recipient transit agency commits to and produces documentation biennially that:

(A) Establishes that the funding has and shall be used only for the senior and disabled population.

(B) Establishes that a financial and operational maintenance of effort is in place and that funding under Section 99312.8 of the Public Utilities Code is being used solely for expanded or improved services for the target population and not as a backfill for other, redirected funds.

(e) A coordinated transportation services agency is authorized to review and comment on all of the following:

(1) State and local capital improvement plans and other significant public works.

(2) General and specific plans relevant to a coordinated transportation services agency’s jurisdiction.

(3) Transition plans for compliance with the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12101, et seq.) relevant to a coordinated transportation services agency’s jurisdiction.

(4) Transit stop and access plans and programs.

(f) Agencies with responsibilities for documents listed in subdivision (e) shall distribute documents to and respond to comments from a coordinated transportation services agency. The Office of Planning and Research, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Transportation shall adopt and amend regulations to implement this subdivision and to establish reporting and performance requirements that, to the extent practicable, respect the principle of subsidiarity.

99312.8.

 (a) Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, the revenues transferred to the Public Transportation Account for the State Transit Assistance Program that are attributable to the component of the transportation improvement fee imposed pursuant to Section 11052.5 of the Revenue and Taxation Code are continuously appropriated without regard to fiscal years to the Controller, and, upon allocation pursuant to subdivision (b), shall only be expended on accessible transportation services for seniors and disabled persons.

(b) The moneys appropriated pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be allocated to each county board of supervisors based on the ratio of the county’s population to the total population of the state.

11052.

 (a) The annual amount of the transportation improvement fee shall be based on the market value of the vehicle, as determined by the department pursuant to Sections 10753, 10753.2, and 10753.5, using the following schedule:

(1) Vehicles with a vehicle market value range between zero dollars ($0) and four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars ($4,999), a fee of twenty-five dollars ($25).

(2) Vehicles with a vehicle market value range between five thousand dollars ($5,000) and twenty-four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars ($24,999), a fee of fifty dollars ($50).

(3) Vehicles with a vehicle market value range between twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) and thirty-four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars ($34,999), a fee of one hundred dollars ($100).

(4) Vehicles with a vehicle market value range between thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000) and fifty-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars ($59,999), a fee of one hundred fifty dollars ($150).

(5) Vehicles with a vehicle market value range of sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) and higher, a fee of one hundred seventy-five dollars ($175).

(b) On January 1, 2020, and every January 1 thereafter, the department shall adjust the transportation improvement fee imposed under subdivision (a) by increasing the fee for each vehicle market range in an amount equal to the increase in the California Consumer Price Index for the prior year, except the first adjustment shall cover the prior two years, as calculated by the Department of Finance, with amounts equal to or greater than fifty cents ($0.50) rounded to the highest whole dollar. The incremental change shall be added to the associated fee rate for that year.

(c) (1) Any changes to the transportation improvement fee imposed in subdivision (a) that are enacted by the Legislature subsequent to January 1, 2018, shall be deemed to be changes to the base fee for purposes of the California Consumer Price Index calculation and adjustment performed pursuant to subdivision (b).

11052.5.

 In addition to the amounts described in Section 11052, the transportation improvement fee shall also include a charge of ten dollars ($10) per vehicle, regardless of its market value.

11053.5.

 Revenues from the component of the transportation improvement fee imposed by Section 11052.5 shall be transferred by the department to the Controller for deposit into the Public Transportation Account for the State Transit Assistance Program for allocation and expenditure pursuant to Section 99312.8 of the Public Utilities Code.