BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2222
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Date of Hearing: April 27, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2222 (Holden) - As Amended April 6, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill continuously appropriates $50 million per year from
the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) for a program, to be
administered by Caltrans, to provide free or reduced cost public
transit passes to students. Specifically, this bill:
1)Establishes the Transit Pass Program to support local transit
pass programs that provide free or reduced fares to students
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from K-12 public schools, community colleges, the California
State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC).
2)Requires Caltrans, in coordination with the Air Resources
Board (ARB), to develop guidelines and reporting requirements
for the program, including ensuring that existing transit pass
programs expend funds to expand eligibility or further reduce
the cost of the transit passes, and to develop performance
measures to evaluate program effectiveness.
3)Requires that each eligible transit agency receive a minimum
allocation of $20,000 and the remainder of the funds be
distributed based on existing State Transit Assistance
formulas.
4)Requires at least 33% of program funds to benefit
disadvantaged communities.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Continuous special fund appropriation of $50 million (GGFR).
Administrative costs to Caltrans and the ARB for a $50 million
annual program would be at least $700,000 annually to: develop
and update program guidelines; develop performance measures and
quantification methodology to determine greenhouse gas
reductions; determine reporting requirements; determine
allocations; track disbursements; and ensure compliance with
program requirements.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, this bill would provide
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hard-working, budget conscious students with low-cost transit
passes that will enable them to commute to and from their
destination, while providing local transportation agencies
with statistically proven source of new riders. A study
conducted by UCLA found that providing free or low-cost access
to public transit significantly reduced the demand for student
parking at college campuses and that over half of college
students polled favored increasing student fees to help fund
low-cost transit programs.
2)Background. Many transit agencies in California provide free
or reduced fare transit passes to students for use on their
systems. For example, the San Francisco Muni offers the Free
Muni for Youth program that gives free access to low and
moderate income youth, from five to 18 years old. Sacramento
Regional Transit also offers students from age five to 18 a
50% discounted fare for monthly passes. The Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has been
offering reduced fares for both K-12 and college students
since the early 1990s. Specifically, Metro has programs for
both college students, with a 54% discount on a monthly pass,
and a 76% discount for the K-12 program.
Additionally, transit agencies have developed agreements
directly with schools in their jurisdictions to partner and
provide free or reduced passes to all students. The University
of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of
Southern California (USC) provide free passes for their
students in partnership with Metro.
3)GGRF. Current law continuously appropriates 60% of GGRF fund
proceeds for transit, affordable housing and sustainable
communities programs, and high-speed rail.
4)Related Legislation. AB 1555 (Gomez), pending in the Assembly
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Budget Committee, appropriates $800 million from the GGRF to
fund a variety of programs, including $10 million for active
transportation and transit passes.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081