BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 616
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Date of Hearing: August 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 616 (Roth) - As Amended: June 10, 2014
Policy Committee:
TransportationVote:13-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill:
1)Requires Caltrans, when awarding a grant from the Aeronautics
Account, to certify to a grant applicant that the department
has received from the applicant all documentation required by
the department.
2)Allows an applicant, upon receipt of Caltrans certification,
to begin the project for which the grant was awarded.
3)Provides that if Caltrans, after transmitting the
certification, determines it requires further documentation,
the grantee has 45 days to submit the documentation, during
which time the applicant shall not lose eligibility for the
grant award.
FISCAL EFFECT
Minor absorbable costs to Caltrans to modify grant procedures.
The flexibility provided to Caltrans in the bill could reduce
administratively-caused time delays and disruptions to airport
projects, thus reducing overall costs.
COMMENTS
1)Background . The Aeronautics Improvement Program (AIP),
administered by the FAA, provides grants to public agencies
for the planning and development of public-use airports. In
general, the federal grant covers 75% of eligible costs for
large and medium primary hub airports and 90% of eligible
SB 616
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costs for small primary, reliever, and general aviation
airports.
To supplement the federal AIP, Caltrans administers a state
AIP matching grant program through its Division of
Aeronautics. The program provides grants equal to five percent
of the federal grant. Caltrans' regulations require that in
order to be eligible for a state AIP grant, a sponsor already
must have secured a federal AIP grant and complied with the
California Environmental Quality Act.
Under the current regulations governing the state AIP grants,
airports are only eligible for the grant for projects that
have not yet broken ground, which is fairly standard in grant
programs, especially ones in which funding is not guaranteed.
Caltrans does not have enough funds to provide a matching
grant to every airport in California that receives a federal
AIP grant and does not want airports starting a project in
reliance on a state match that may not get approved.
2)Purpose . According to the author, there have been instances in
which Caltrans has awarded an airport an AIP matching grant
and later determined the grant application file was
incomplete. If the airport had already broken ground, Caltrans
revoked the grant because the regulations limit the department
from exercising discretion in such situations. SB 616 is
intended to provide Caltrans with flexibility to work with an
airport when grant applications and related documentation are
found by Caltrans to be deficient after Caltrans has made an
award without the airport losing eligibility for the grant.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081