BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1938
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Date of Hearing: April 4, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Jim Frazier, Chair
AB 1938
(Baker) - As Introduced February 12, 2016
SUBJECT: Toll facilities: Metropolitan Transportation
Commission
SUMMARY: Clarifies that the existing 1% limit on the amount of
money that the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) may contribute to
the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) applies to any
revenues derived from bridge tolls, fees, or taxes, regardless
of classification.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Created MTC as a local area planning agency to provide
comprehensive regional transportation planning for the
nine-county Bay Area region comprised of the City and County
of San Francisco and the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa,
Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.
2)Created BATA to administer all toll revenues for the
state-owned Bay Area toll bridges (except for revenues derived
from a $1 seismic toll surcharge). The same board that
governs MTC governs BATA.
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3)Grants BATA broad authority, including the authority to:
a) Acquire, construct, manage, maintain, lease, or operate
any public facility or improvements;
b) Invest any money not required for its immediate
necessities; and,
c) Make contributions, up to 1% of gross annual bridge
revenues, to MTC in furtherance of BATA's powers, including
contributions of personnel services, office space,
overhead, and other funding necessary to carry out the
function of the authority.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: In 2011, MTC and BATA formed a joint powers agency,
the Bay Area Headquarters Authority, for the purposes of
acquiring an office building in San Francisco to create a joint
regional government co-location facility. The building is
initially to serve as a regional headquarters for MTC, the Bay
Area Air Quality Management District and the Bay Conservation
and Development Commission and may later house the Association
of Bay Area Governments and the San Francisco Bay Area
Conservation and Development Commission. MTC's purchase of the
building caused significant controversy. Questions were raised
as to why bridge toll revenues from BATA were used to purchase a
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building, which is much larger than the amount of office space
the co-locating agencies need, with the intent to rent out extra
space.
In response to concerns regarding the purchase and planned
moved, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested the State
Auditor to investigate the proposed move and specifically the
use of toll revenues to fund the purchase and improvements of
the office building. The audit was released in August 2012 and
found, in part, that BATA's use of toll bridge revenues to
purchase a regional headquarters building in San Francisco is
likely legally permissible. However, the audit raised concerns
that MTC may not realize anticipated cash flow needs sufficient
to repay contributed toll revenues by a range of $1.5 million to
$53.7 million over 30 years.
Ultimately, the State Auditor recommended to the Legislature
that, if it believes state law provides BATA too much discretion
over its use of toll revenues, then the Legislature should
consider amending state law to more narrowly define how toll
revenues that are not immediately needed for bridge maintenance
or debt service may be spent or invested.
In response to the Auditor's recommendation, the Legislature
passed, and the Governor signed, SB 613 (DeSaulnier), Chapter
603, Statutes of 2013, to ensure bridge tolls are not used in
the future to purchase property that is not "solely for the
management of state-owned toll bridges. SB 613 also limited
BATA's authority to contribute to MTC to no more than 1% of the
gross annual bridge revenues, as defined.
In November 2014, however, BATA transferred $33 million to MTC
to fund construction costs of the new headquarters in San
Francisco, an amount greater than the 1% direct contribution
limit. (One percent of annual toll bridge revenues equals about
$7 million.) These funds were savings resulting from the early
debt retirement and were classified by BATA as "non-bridge toll
revenue." Because of this classification, the contribution to
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MTC presumably fell outside the limit imposed by SB 613 the year
before.
The author introduced AB 1938 to close this loophole and to
ensure that BATA's revenues are used for their intended
infrastructure purposes rather than "risky real estate
ventures."
Double referral: This bill will be referred to the Assembly
Appropriations Committee should it pass out of this committee.
Previous legislation: SB 613 (DeSaulnier) Chapter 603, Statutes
of 2013, placed limitations on the use of toll revenues from the
seven state-owned toll bridges within the jurisdiction of BATA,
including a prohibition from acquiring any office space or
facility in addition to the offices it recently acquired in San
Francisco and limiting BATA's authority to contribute to MTC to
no more than 1% of the gross annual bridge revenues.
AB 1384 (Baker) of 2015, an earlier iteration of this bill, was
scheduled to be heard by this committee in January 2016 but was
withdrawn by the author prior to the hearing.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association
AB 1938
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093