BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 582
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator S. Joseph Simitian, Chairman
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 582
AUTHOR: Emmerson
AMENDED: May 5, 2011
FISCAL: No HEARING DATE: May 9, 2011
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Peter Cowan
SUBJECT : COMMUTE BENEFITS
SUMMARY :
Existing law :
1) Provides that air pollution control districts and air
quality management districts (hereafter, collectively, air
districts) have primary responsibility for controlling air
pollution from all sources, other than emissions from
mobile sources.
2) Federal law establishes metropolitan planning organizations
(MPOs) for the purpose of developing regional
transportation plans in urbanized areas with populations
greater than 50,000.
This bill :
1) Allows a local air district and a metropolitan planning
organization to jointly adopt a commute benefit ordinance
for their common jurisdiction that require employers to
offer one of the following options:
a) A pretax option consistent with federal law allowing
covered employees to exclude from taxable wages certain
employee transit pass, vanpool, or bicycle commuting
costs.
b) An employer-paid benefit whereby the covered employer
offers a subsidy to offset the transit or vanpool
commuting costs. In 2013 the subsidy must be equal to
either the monthly cost of commuting or $75, whichever
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is lower, and annually thereafter the subsidy must be
adjusted as consistent with the California Consumer
Price Index.
c) Transportation furnished by the covered employer at
no or low cost to the covered employee in a vanpool,
bus, or multipassenger vehicle operated by or for the
employer.
2) Allows an employer offering an alternative commuter benefit
not identified above to seek approval of the alternative
benefit from the MPO. The MPO may approve the alternative
benefit if it determines the alternative benefit provides
at least the same benefit in terms of reducing
single-occupant vehicle trips as any of the options above.
3) Requires that the commute benefit ordinance must provide
covered employers with at least six months to comply after
adoption of the ordinance.
4) Requires a commute benefit ordinance to specify how the
implementing agencies will inform covered employers, how
compliance will be demonstrated, the procedures for
proposing and criteria used to evaluate an alternative
commuter benefit, and any consequences for noncompliance.
5) Requires that for the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air
Pollution Control District to adopt a commute benefit
ordinance it must be jointly adopted by all eight MPOs
partially or wholly within its jurisdiction.
6) Requires that on or before July 1, 2016, a MPO and air
district that implement a commute benefit ordinance report
to the Legislature and sets various requirements for that
report.
7) Defines "covered employer" to mean any employer for which
an average of 20 or more employees perform work for
compensation on a full-time basis within the area where a
commute benefit ordinance is adopted except that a MPO may
provide for the ordinance to apply solely to employers with
50 or more employees.
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8) Defines "covered employee" to mean an employee who
performed at least an average of 20 hours of work per week
within the pervious calendar month within the area where
the ordinance is adopted.
9) Provides that the statutory or regulatory authority of a
MPO or air district is not limited or restricted.
10)Provides the above provisions sunset January 1, 2017.
11)Excludes from all of the above provisions an air district
with a trip reduction regulation initially adopted prior to
the 1990 Federal Clean Air Act Amendments as long as it
continues to have a trip reduction regulation.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . According to the author, SB 582 "will help
reduce congestion, cut air pollution, and achieve the
transportation-related greenhouse gas reduction targets
adopted by the Air Resources Board (ARB) in 2010,
consistent with Senate Bill 375 (Steinberg, 2008). ? A
regional commute benefit policy will give California's MPOs
a new tool to help achieve the greenhouse gas reduction
targets set by the ARB and reduce other tailpipe
emissions."
2) Coverage . Several cities, including Berkeley, Richmond,
and San Francisco have already adopted commute benefit
ordinances with similar options as those provided in SB
582, however all have more expansive definitions of
"Covered employers" or "Covered employees." SB 582 gives
the MPO the option of applying the ordinance to all
businesses with 20 and more, or 50 and more, employees and
requires that only full-time employees be counted.
Berkeley and Richmond ordinances apply to businesses with
10 or more employees while San Francisco's ordinance
applies to businesses with 20 or more employees, but
defines "employee" to be any person who works for
compensation.
According to the California Employment Development
Department (EDD) in 3rd quarter 2009, the most recent for
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which data are available, businesses with 50 or more full
or part-time employees constituted 59.5% of all employees
statewide (14.5 million total). Businesses with 20 or more
employees constitute 75.8% of the workforce while business
10 employees or larger constitute 85.6%.
3) Clarifying amendments . The bill should be clarified so that
businesses which wish to do so may provide more than one of
the commute benefit options. A similar clarification would
give a business providing the employer-paid benefit the
option to subsidize transit for more than $75 per month.
SOURCE : Bay Area Air Quality Management District,
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
SUPPORT : Bay Area Air Quality Management District,
California Transit Association, Metropolitan
Transportation Commission
OPPOSITION : None on file