BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 64
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Date of Hearing: June 22, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Jim Frazier, Chair
SB
64 (Liu) - As Amended June 24, 2015
SENATE VOTE: 36-2
SUBJECT: California Transportation Plan.
SUMMARY: Directs the California Transportation Commission (CTC)
to review recommendations in the California Transportation Plan
(CTP) developed by the California Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) and to make its own specific recommendations for
transportation system improvements to the Legislature and the
Governor; also directs the CTC to include in its annual report
to the Legislature specific, action-oriented and pragmatic
recommendations for legislation to improve the transportation
system.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Vests CTC with responsibility to advise and assist the
Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency
(CalSTA) and the Legislature in formulating and evaluating
state policies and plans for California's transportation
programs.
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2)Requires CTC to submit to the Legislature an annual report
that, among other things, identifies timely and relevant
transportation issues facing California and that may include a
discussion of any significant upcoming transportation issues
anticipated to be of concern to the public and the
Legislature.
3)Requires Caltrans to prepare a long-range transportation plan,
the CTP, and to update the plan every five years. The CTP is
to include all of the following:
a) A policy element that describes the state's
transportation policies and system performance objectives;
b) A strategies element that incorporates the broad system
concepts and strategies synthesized from the adopted
regional transportation plans; and
c) A recommendations element that includes economic
forecasts and recommendations to the Legislature and the
Governor to achieve the plan's broad system concepts,
strategies, and performance objectives.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: SB 391 (Liu), Chapter 585, Statutes of 2009, directed
Caltrans to develop the CTP, a long-range, statewide
transportation plan intended to identify the integrated
multi-modal transportation system needed to move people and
freight and to achieve the state's greenhouse gas emission
reduction goals. SB 391 requires the CTP to be updated every
five years.
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Last session, the Legislature passed SB 486 (DeSaulnier),
Chapter 917, Statutes of 2014, to link the CTP with Caltrans'
other planning and programming processes. The linear process
set forth in SB 486 is meant to ensure that only those
transportation projects that support the state's broad policy
objectives and strategies, as set forth in the CTP, are planned,
environmentally reviewed, designed, and funded. Consequently,
the significance of the CTP should not be underestimated because
it forms the basis for future investment decisions that will
affect California's transportation system.
The next iteration of the updated CTP is due to be completed by
December 31, 2015. Caltrans is circulating a draft version of
the plan for comment and the draft has created quite a stir
within the transportation community. For example, CTC, in its
comments to Caltrans about the draft, asserts that "it is
evident that Caltrans is planning for significant actions that
will fundamentally alter how Californians will utilize our
transportation system." CTC criticizes several aspects of the
draft CTP, for example:
1)CTC suggests the CTP inappropriately lacks balance between
California's greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and the
state's economic and mobility goals.
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2)CTC argues that road capacity projects, in addition to other
project types, "must be strategically planned to address
California's growing population and promote a robust economy."
CTC takes umbrage with statements made in the CTP such as the
direction to "avoid projects that add road capacity" and "any
transportation projects on the State Highway System or on
local streets that are capacity increasing should not be
supported for funding."
Others similarly voiced concerns regarding the draft CTP. For
example, the California Association of Councils of Government
(CalCOG) contends that the CTP makes assumptions about things
like road pricing, electric vehicle market penetration, and more
that would never survive the fiscal-constraint and environmental
review restrictions that apply to regional transportation plans
and sustainable communities strategies. CalCOG suggests that,
"while the CTP may be a worthy vision--it does not have to
address the hard questions of how the assumptions and strategies
will materialize."
The author introduced SB 64 as a follow-up to her SB 391 of 2009
with the intent to solicit specific, focused recommendations for
the Governor and the Legislature from CTC in response to each
update of the plan.
Given the central role that the CTP now plays in the state's
transportation planning and project selection processes and
given the controversy surrounding current draft CTP, SB 64 makes
good sense and is particularly timely. Strategies to provide a
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transportation system that can support and encourage a robust
economy and meet the state's greenhouse gas emission reduction
goals will undoubtedly be aggressive and will require difficult
policy trade-offs. CTC's specific recommendations, as required
by this bill, will assist the Governor and the Legislature to
better understand the implications of these trade-offs.
Furthermore, because transportation is a complex, often very
technical subject matter, the Legislature leans on the CTC for
advice and counsel to guide transportation policies and to
provide oversight. SB 64 directs the CTC, in addition to
recommendations regarding the CTP, to provide to the Legislature
specific, action-oriented recommendations in the CTC's annual
report to the Legislature.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
SB 64
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None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916)
319-2093