BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                   SB 582|
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                                 THIRD READING


          Bill No:  SB 582
          Author:   Emmerson (R), et al.
          Amended:  5/5/11
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE :  8-0, 4/26/11
          AYES:  DeSaulnier, Gaines, Harman, Huff, Kehoe, Lowenthal, 
            Pavley, Rubio
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Simitian

           SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE  :  5-0, 5/9/11
          AYES:  Strickland, Hancock, Kehoe, Lowenthal, Pavley
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Simitian, Blakeslee


           SUBJECT  :    Commute benefit policies

           SOURCE  :     Bay Area Air Quality Management District
                      Metropolitan Transportation Commission


           DIGEST  :    This bill authorizes, until January 1, 2017, a 
          metropolitan planning organization and an air district to 
          adopt jointly an ordinance that requires certain employers 
          located within their common area of jurisdiction to offer 
          their employees specified commute benefits with the goal of 
          reducing single-occupant vehicle trips. 

           ANALYSIS  :    Existing state law provides that air pollution 
          control districts and air quality management districts 
          (hereafter, collectively, air districts) have primary 
          responsibility for controlling air pollution from all 
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          sources, other than emissions from mobile sources.

          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 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. Provides that an employer may offer a more generous 
             commuter benefit than is otherwise required by the 
             applicable commute benefit ordinance.

          3. 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.


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          4. Requires that the commute benefit ordinance must provide 
             covered employers with at least six months to comply 
             after adoption of the ordinance.

          5. 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.

          6. 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.

          7. 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.

          8. 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.

          9. 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.

          10.Provides that the statutory or regulatory authority of a 
             MPO or air district is not limited or restricted.

          11.Provides the above provisions sunset January 1, 2017. 

          12.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.


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           Background  

           Metropolitan planning organizations and air districts  .  
          MPOs are agencies established under federal law in 
          urbanized areas with more than 50,000 persons with the 
          purpose of developing the region's transportation plan 
          (RTP), as required by federal law.  There are 18 MPOs in 
          California, which together cover 37 counties.  Many MPOs 
          are also the region's regional transportation planning 
          agency (RTPA) established under state law.  While the 
          specific responsibilities of an RTPA may vary somewhat 
          across each region, RTPAs generally have responsibility for 
          transportation planning and allocating funds from certain 
          state and federal highway and transit programs.  

          Air quality management districts and air pollution control 
          districts (air districts) are agencies established under 
          state law that are responsible for achieving and 
          maintaining state and federal ambient air quality standards 
          within their jurisdiction.  All areas of the state are 
          covered by an air district.  Existing law broadly 
          authorizes air districts to adopt and enforce rules and 
          regulations to achieve these standards, including adopting 
          rules to reduce or mitigate emissions from indirect and 
          areawide sources of air pollution and to encourage or 
          require the use of measures that reduce the number or 
          length of vehicle trips.  Air districts or any other public 
          agency, including a congestion management agency, may not, 
          however, require an employer to implement an employee trip 
          reduction program unless the program is expressly required 
          by federal law.  

           Laws designed to reduce single-occupant vehicle trips  .  
          There exists in state law few programs or requirements that 
          seek to encourage commuters to use a mode of transportation 
          other than the single-occupant vehicle.  One such 
          requirement is parking cash-out, which requires each 
          employer with 50 or more employees that provides a parking 
          subsidy to employees to provide a cash allowance to an 
          employee who does not use the parking space in an amount 
          equivalent to the amount the employer would otherwise pay 
          to provide that employee a parking space.    

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  No   

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          Local:  No

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  5/16/11)

          Bay Area Air Quality Management District (co-source)
          Metropolitan Transportation Commission (co-source)
          Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District
          American Lung Association
          Brereton Architects
          Britannia Oyster Point Commute Program
          California Transit Association
          E.L. Williams Realty
          Enterprise Holdings
          Environmental Defense Fund
          Facebook
          Genentech
          San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
          South San Francisco Business Center
          Sunnyvale City Center
          Transform
          T.Y. Lin International
          Water Emergency Transportation Authority
          Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean LLP

           OPPOSITION  :    (Verified  5/16/11)

          Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District


          JJA:mw  5/17/11   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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