BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



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          Date of Hearing:  July 8, 2015


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS


                                 Jimmy Gomez, Chair


          SB 64  
          (Liu) - As Amended June 24, 2015


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          Urgency:  No  State Mandated Local Program:  NoReimbursable:  No


          SUMMARY:


          This bill requires the California Transportation Commission  
          (CTC) to:










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          1)Review recommendations in the California Transportation Plan  
            (CTP)-prepared by Caltrans and updated every five years-and to  
            make its own specific recommendations for transportation  
            system improvements to the Legislature and the Governor by  
            December 31, 2016, and every five years thereafter.


          2)Include recommendations for legislation to improve the  
            transportation system in its annual report to the Legislature.


          FISCAL EFFECT:


          Minor costs (up to $100,000) every five years for the CTC to  
          review the CTP and report its recommendations. The CTCs costs to  
          incorporate recommendations for legislation into its annual  
          report should be minor and absorbable. (State Highway Account)


          Notwithstanding the above costs associated solely with this  
          bill, in the 2015-16 Budget Act, the CTC received funding for a  
          two-year limited-term Supervising Transportation Planner to  
          fulfill its responsibilities under SB 486(DeSaulnier)/Chapter  
          917, Statutes of 2014. The CTC indicates that, to fulfill the  
          requirements of both SB 64 and SB 486, it would seek to convert  
          this position to permanent status.


          COMMENTS:


          1)Background. 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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            SB 486 links the CTP with Caltrans' other planning and  
            programming processes in order to ensure that only those  
            transportation projects supporting the state's broad policy  
            objectives and strategies, as set forth in the CTP, are  
            planned, environmentally reviewed, designed, and funded. SB  
            486 also authorized the CTC, in cooperation with Caltrans, to  
            prescribe study areas for analysis and evaluation by the  
            department and to establish guidelines for the preparation of  
            the updates to the CTP.


          2)Purpose. 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.


            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 to provide to the  
            legislature, in addition to recommendations regarding the CTP,  
            specific recommendations for legislation in the CTC's annual  
            report to the Legislature.





          Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081













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