BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 491|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 491
Author: Committee on Transportation and Housing
Amended: 6/29/15
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 10-0, 4/28/15
AYES: Beall, Cannella, Bates, Gaines, Galgiani, Leyva,
McGuire, Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Allen
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR: 36-0, 5/18/15 (Consent)
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Block, Cannella, De León,
Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill,
Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire,
Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen,
Nielsen, Pan, Roth, Runner, Stone, Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Berryhill, Hall, Pavley
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 8/27/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Transportation: omnibus bill
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill makes non-controversial, technical changes to
sections of law relating to transportation.
SB 491
Page 2
Assembly Amendments add several technical and non-controversial
provisions dealing with transportation issues.
ANALYSIS:
This bill:
1) Removes the requirement for the California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) to report the delivery date of the
construction phase of a project as erroneously required by
SB 486 (DeSaulnier, Chapter 917, Statutes of 2014).
[Submitted by the Senate Transportation and Housing
Committee]
2) Updates the title for the Federal Statewide Transportation
Improvement Program, removes incorrect references to the
federal law relating to that program, and provides an
additional two months for Caltrans to incorporate federal
changes into the State Transportation Improvement Plan.
[Submitted by Caltrans]
3) Authorizes the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
(VTA) to hold public meetings for the purpose of adopting
project selection criteria for expenditure of Bay Area Air
Quality Management District vehicle registration surcharge
funds only if project selection criteria have changes (as
opposed to annually whether or not selection criteria have
changed as is required in existing law). [Submitted by VTA]
4) Updates the codes by replacing the outdated reference to
Business, Transportation and Housing Agency with reference
to the newly formed California Transportation Agency.
[Submitted by the Senate Transportation and Housing
Committee]
SB 491
Page 3
5) Deletes specified state highway route segment descriptions
from the codes for highway segments that have been
relinquished by the California Transportation Commission
(CTC) to local jurisdictions. [Submitted by the Office of
Assemblymember Ridley-Thomas]
6) Changes the word "protected" to "separated" in the code to
better describe cycling infrastructure consisting of marked
lanes, tracks, shoulders, and paths designated exclusively
for bicycle use. [Submitted by Caltrans]
7) Replaces references in the Vehicle Code pertaining to
suspensions and revocations of the driving privileges to the
repealed Welfare and Institutions Code with the appropriate
renumbered sections in the Family Code. [Submitted by the
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)]
8) Corrects a drafting error in AB 1047 (Linder, Chapter 649,
Statutes of 2013), that omitted drivers of buses with a
gross vehicle weight rating of 26,000 pounds or less from
the requirement to be enrolled in the Employer Pull Notice
(EPN) Program by clarifying that any driver's license
endorsement issued to operate any commercial motor vehicle
requires enrollment in the EPN Program. [Submitted by the
California Highway Patrol (CHP)]
9) Makes conforming changes to code sections to correct
references to renumbered code sections with regard to DMV's
authority to hold administrative hearings for drivers whose
privileges are suspended or revoked for driving under the
influence. [Submitted by DMV]
10) Corrects an oversight in recent legislation that extended
the operative date of exemptions to provide proof of
financial responsibility as part of the vehicle registration
renewal process without concomitantly amending the sunset
date. [Submitted by DMV]
SB 491
Page 4
11) Brings various sections of the California's Motor Carrier
Safety Assistance Program codes into compliance with federal
mandates. [Submitted by CHP]
12) Explicitly prohibits wearing earbuds or headsets covering,
resting on, or inserted in both ears when operating a motor
vehicle or bicycle. [Submitted by the Senate Transportation
and Housing Committee]
13) Restores the CTC's authority to relinquish segments of
State Routes 92, 185, and 238 to the City of Hayward, if
Caltrans and the city reach an agreement. These provisions
are identical to the provisions of prior legislation
granting CTC relinquishment authority for these route
segments (AB 1386, Hayashi, Chapter 291, Statutes of 2009),
which was inadvertently removed by the 2012 Transportation
Omnibus Bill, AB 2679 (Committee on Transportation, Chapter
769, Statutes of 2012). [Submitted by Caltrans]
14) Makes technical corrections to statutory provisions
pertaining to prior relinquishments to ensure the statutes
accurately reflect the statutory provisions authorizing
those relinquishments. [Submitted by Caltrans]
15) Delays the Active Transportation Program project selection
dates by one month from December 31, 2015, to January 31,
2016, to allow the Southern California Association of
Governments (SCAG) to first adopt the final regional plan.
[Submitted by SCAG]
16) Makes the Vehicle Code consistent with the principally
at-fault accident determinations under the Insurance
Regulations (Code of Civil Procedure and Civil Code) by
increasing the threshold for reporting an accident with
property damage to the DMV from $750 to $1,000. [Submitted
SB 491
Page 5
by the Office of Senator Hill per SB 438 (Hill, 2015)]
Comments
Purpose of this bill. The purpose of omnibus bills is to
include technical and non-controversial changes to various
committee-related statutes into one bill. This allows the
Legislature to make multiple, minor changes to statutes in one
bill in a cost-effective manner. The Senate Committee on
Transportation and Housing, in collaboration with the Assembly
Transportation Committee, requires that its transportation
omnibus bill be a consensus measure: If there is no consensus
on a particular item, it cannot be included. There is no known
opposition to any item in this bill.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified8/26/15)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/26/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
SB 491
Page 6
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Frazier, Williams
Prepared by:Alison Dinmore / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121
8/28/15 15:32:05
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