BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1037|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1037
Author: Hernandez (D)
Amended: 6/9/14
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 11-0, 4/29/14
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Beall, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso,
Lara, Liu, Pavley, Roth, Wyland
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 6-1, 5/7/14
AYES: Wolk, Knight, Beall, DeSaulnier, Hernandez, Liu
NOES: Walters
SENATE FLOOR : 31-2, 5/12/14
AYES: Anderson, Beall, Berryhill, Block, Cannella, Corbett,
Correa, De León, DeSaulnier, Fuller, Galgiani, Hancock,
Hernandez, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Lieu, Liu,
Mitchell, Monning, Padilla, Pavley, Roth, Steinberg, Torres,
Vidak, Wolk, Wyland
NOES: Morrell, Walters
NO VOTE RECORDED: Calderon, Evans, Gaines, Knight, Nielsen,
Wright, Yee
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 6/30/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Measure R project cost estimates
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the Los Angeles County
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Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) to update its
expenditure plan and Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP)
before presenting another measure before the voters.
Assembly Amendments require LACMTA, at least 30 days before
submitting the ordinance to the voters, to post the amended
expenditure plan and the LRTP on its Internet Web site in a
prominent manner.
ANALYSIS : In order to efficiently plan the state's near-term
transportation expenditures, existing law requires regional
transportation planning agencies to adopt, every odd-numbered
year, a five-year regional transportation improvement plan
containing all projects funded with state and federal dollars.
These fiscally constrained plans are derived from regional
transportation planning efforts identifying long-term
transportation needs based on forecasted population growth and
addressing mobility needs. The long-term regional
transportation plans are not fiscally constrained, which means
they include many more projects than there is likely to be
resources available to build.
In the region overseen by the Southern California Association of
Governments (SCAG), which includes the counties of Imperial, Los
Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura, each
county develops and adopts its own transportation plan and then
submits that plan to SCAG for consolidation. The LACMTA adopted
its LRTP in 2009, which includes projects for which it has
identified funding as well as unfunded projects for future
consideration. In developing its 2009 LRTP, LACMTA designated
and partnered with nine subregions within Los Angeles County
that identified their own transportation needs and priorities to
be included in the LRTP.
Existing law permits a county board of supervisors to create a
countywide transportation authority to plan and fund
transportation projects within the county. These transportation
authorities may impose a local sales tax for transportation
purposes, if the tax ordinance is within statutory limits and
abides by restrictions on local taxes contained in the
California Constitution. Counties that have chosen to tax
themselves for transportation purposes call themselves
"self-help" counties because they have approved measures to help
themselves address their own transportation problems.
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In 2008, the Legislature passed and the governor signed AB 2321
(Feuer, Chapter 302) which authorized LACMTA to place before the
voters an ordinance to increase the local transportation sales
tax for 30 years by 0.5% in Los Angeles County. The statute
required LACMTA to adopt an expenditure plan prior to submitting
the ordinance to the voters, and identified 18 projects to be
included in that expenditure plan and in the LRTP. AB 2321
required LACMTA to include in the expenditure plan the
anticipated completion date for each project. In November 2008,
LACMTA placed the sales tax ordinance, referred to as Measure R,
on the ballot and 67% of the voters approved the measure.
At the time voters approved Measure R, LACMTA estimated that the
30-year program would raise about $40 billion. Because of the
recession and general economic malaise that followed that vote,
LACMTA adjusted its revenue estimates downward and now only
expects the sales tax measure to generate about $36 billion. To
address this funding shortfall, LACMTA began a search for
additional revenue or funding mechanisms to meet its
transportation needs. In 2012, the Legislature passed and the
governor signed AB 1446 (Feuer, Chapter 806) which authorized
LACMTA to place before the voters an ordinance to either
eliminate or extend Measure R's 30-year sunset date. The
measure, put before the voters in November 2012, failed to
achieve the two-thirds majority necessary for passage.
This bill requires LACMTA, before to submitting another Measure
R extension to the voters, to do the following:
1.Amend its expenditure plan and, for the 18 projects included
in the original Measure R legislation, update the following
information:
The most recent cost estimates for each project and
program identified in the amended expenditure plan.
The identification of the accelerated cost, if
applicable, for each project and program in the amended
expenditure plan.
The schedule for which MTA anticipates funds will be
available for each project and program.
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The expected completion dates for each project and
program.
1.Requires MTA develop a transparent process to determine the
most recent cost estimates for each project and program in the
amended expenditure plan.
2.Include in a revised and updated LRTP both the Measure R
expenditure plan and all capital projects adopted and
submitted to LACMTA by each of the nine Los Angeles County
subregions. Specifies inclusion of a project or program in
the LRTP is not a guarantee that the project or program shall
receive future funding.
3.Requires LACMTA, at least 30 days before submitting the
ordinance to the voters, to post the amended expenditure plan
and the LRTP on its Internet Web site in a prominent manner.
Comments
According to the author, LACMTA's process for determining cost
estimates for projects in its expenditure plans is internal, and
the agency may or may not solicit estimates from outside
sources. Some have criticized this process and suggest it
results in out-of-date figures and cost projections. Because of
the uncertainty in how LACMTA determines its estimates, there is
general unease between various subregions in Los Angeles County,
and some worry that one project is being treated more favorably
than another behind the scenes. This bill attempts to bypass
efforts by individual project sponsors to increase their own
share of funding by instituting a transparent method for
determining cost estimates in which subregions submit their own
updated estimates to LACMTA.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 6/30/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier,
Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove,
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Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein,
Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian,
Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A. Pérez, V.
Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron,
Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Weber, Vacancy
JA:nl 7/1/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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