BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1175
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 6, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 1175 (Torlakson) - As Amended: April 14, 2009
Policy Committee:
TransportationVote:9-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill makes the Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges part of the
Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program (TBSRP) and authorizes the
Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) to submit regional measures to
voters for toll increases to fund transportation improvements.
Specifically, this bill:
1.Directs the State Controller to collect unpaid bridge tolls,
high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane fees, and any relevant
interest, penalties, fines, or other charges from money owed a
person or entity from state income tax refunds or State
Lottery winnings.
2.Transfers all cost overrun savings in the TBSRP, instead of
the state sharing in these savings per current law, to the Bay
Area Toll Account under the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA),
and appropriates the savings to BATA for expenditure on the
Antioch and Dumbarton Bridge seismic retrofit projects.
3.Authorizes BATA to increase the amount of tolls collected on
the seven state-owned San Francisco Bay Area toll bridges in
order to fund the Antioch and Dumbarton projects.
4.Continuously appropriates to Caltrans money paid to the
department by BATA for planning, design, construction,
operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, rehabilitation,
and seismic retrofit of state-owned toll bridges pursuant to
TBSRP.
5.Eliminates the three-year time constraint for use of $20
million in Regional Measure (RM) 2 funds for TransLink, the
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Bay Area's smart card for transit.
6. Requires that Caltrans follow BATA's lead in the Bay Area
with regard to establishing HOV occupancy levels, discounts,
and High-Occupancy (HOV) access criteria.
7.Authorizes BATA to increase tolls following voter approval of
additional regional measures requesting voter approval for the
toll increases to fund a regional traffic relief plan to
improve travel options on the state-owned toll bridges and
transportation corridors closely associated with those
bridges.
8.Requires BATA to reimburse each county, using bridge toll
revenues, for the incremental cost of conducting the regional
measures.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Staff at the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) indicate that
implementing the offset language in the bill could entail
significant reprogramming costs. The FTB had not yet
completed an analysis of the bill.
2)Unknown loss of state revenue from transfers all cost overrun
savings in the TBSRP.
3)One-time costs of $950 million to retrofit the Antioch and
Dumbarton bridges, respectively, to be fully covered by a
future bridge toll increase to be imposed by BATA.
4)Potential significant one-time costs for BATA to reimburse
county elections officials in the region for the incremental
cost of conducting a regional measure asking voter approval to
fund transportation improvements. These costs would be
covered by bridge toll revenues.
COMMENTS
1.Purpose . The Antioch Bridge was built in 1978 and the
Dumbarton Bridge in 1982. These bridges met seismic standards
established after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake in Southern
California, and were relatively new when the state Toll Bridge
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Seismic Retrofit Program originally was established, thus
neither was included in the first round of investigations.
Due to findings from subsequent quakes, however, including
Loma Prieta in 1989, Northridge in 1994 and Kobe (Japan) in
1995, seismic standards now are much higher. A two-year
evaluation conducted by BATA and Caltrans and completed in
December 2008 shows both bridges need significant seismic
safety strengthening. The estimated cost of retrofitting both
bridges is $950 million-$637 million for the Dumbarton Bridge
and $313 million for the Antioch Bridge. This bill allows
BATA to raise tolls on all seven state-owned Bay Area bridges
to cover the cost these two projects. Other elements of the
bill are described below.
2.Toll Evasion . MTC indicates that, due to a comprehensive
collection program, toll evasions have been reduced from $7
million in 2007 to $1.5 million, which still presents a
problem. This bill directs the authority to offset tax
refunds and lottery winnings by the amount of a person's
unpaid tolls.
3.Regional Measures . MTC has had two voter-approved regional
measures-Regional Measure 1 (RM1) in 1998 raised tolls to a
uniform $1 and RM 2 in 2004 raised tolls by an additional
$1-to fund additional transportation improvements in toll
bridge corridors. Current law requires MTC to obtain
legislative authority to submit such measures to Bay Area
voters. AB 1175 provides MTC with streamlined authority to
submit regional measures and requires that future regional
measures include infrastructure projects, acquisition of
transit vehicles, transit operating assistance, and other
improvements to reduce congestion and improve travel.
4.HOV Lanes . MTC is proposing creation of a region-wide, value
pricing HOV network. This bill ensures that the Bay Area
bridges are consistent with Bay Area freeways relative to HOV
usage so that the region will be served with a unified
network.
5.Continuous Appropriation . The proposed continuous
appropriation is intended to allow MTC to continue TBSRP work
in the event of a budget impasse, which would otherwise impede
the use of collected tolls until a budget is resolved. This
approach is contrary to the general policy of this committee,
but MTC argues that (1) this would be a continuous
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appropriation of "local" funds-those generated through a
regionally-imposed toll increase-and (2) lack of authority to
award contracts during a budget delay can cost millions of
dollars in project delays, with possible loss of a full
construction season..
6.Related Legislation . AB 744 (Torrico), pending in this
committee, authorizes BATA to acquire, construct, administer,
and operate a value pricing HOV network program on state
highways within the geographic jurisdiction of MTC, authorizes
capital expenditures for this program to be funded from
program revenues, revenue bonds, and revenue derived from
tolls on state-owned toll bridges within the geographic
jurisdiction of the commission, and authorizes the use of HOV
lanes in the program by single-occupant vehicles for a fee.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081