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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