BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 153
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: ma
VERSION: 6/21/10
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 29, 2010
SUBJECT:
Land use planning
DESCRIPTION:
This bill authorizes regions by a vote of the people to impose a
mitigation fee of up to $4 on vehicle registrations to pay for
regional land use planning activities. This bill also makes
changes to the membership and duties of the Office of Planning
and Research's Planning Advisory and Assistance Council.
ANALYSIS:
Fees on vehicle registrations to fund blueprint planning
Existing law establishes a basic vehicle registration fee of
$34, plus a $22 surcharge for additional personnel for the
California Highway Patrol, and authorizes local agencies to
impose separate vehicle registration fee surcharges in their
respective jurisdictions for a variety of special programs,
including:
$1 for service authorities for freeway emergencies;
$1 for deterring and prosecuting vehicle theft;
up to $7 for air quality programs;
$1 for removing abandoned vehicles; and
$1 for fingerprint identification programs.
Existing law permits local agencies to form joint powers
agencies (JPAs). Cities and counties in regions have exercised
this authority to form JPAs called councils of government (COGs)
to implement regional planning activities required under state
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law, including regional housing needs assessments and regional
transportation plans. COGs generally serve as federally
recognized metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) for
transportation planning purposes, although there are exceptions.
For example, in the nine-county San Francisco Bay region, the
Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is the COG that
prepares the regional housing needs assessment, but the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the region's
MPO.
SB 375 (Steinberg), Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008, required the
Air Resources Board (ARB), by September 30, 2010, to provide
each region that has a metropolitan planning organization (MPO)
with a greenhouse gas emission reduction target for the
automobile and light truck sector for 2020 and 2035,
respectively. Each MPO, in turn, is required to include within
its regional transportation plan (RTP) a sustainable communities
strategy (SCS) designed to achieve the ARB targets for
greenhouse gas emission reduction. If the SCS does not achieve
the reduction target, the MPO must prepare an alternative
planning strategy.
This bill :
1.Allows, subject to approval by the voters, an MPO, a COG, or a
county transportation commission and a subregional COG jointly
preparing an SCS to levy a mitigation fee of up to $4 on
vehicles registered in its jurisdiction to fund the
implementation of an SCS or a regional blueprint plan to
identify land use strategies to reduce the use of motor
vehicles and thereby reduce emissions into the environment.
The regional entity shall adopt a measure implementing and
imposing the fee in every county within its jurisdiction,
except that:
i) In the San Francisco Bay Area, both MTC and ABAG shall
have to adopt jointly a measure and agree how to divide the
revenue received; and
ii) In the jurisdiction of the Southern California
Association of Governments, both a county transportation
commission and a subregional COG shall have to adopt a
resolution and agree how to divide the revenue received.
2.Requires that any regional entity's measure authorizing a fee
must contain specified finding of fact, including that a clear
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nexus exists between the fee payer's activities and the
alleged adverse effects addressed by the fee.
3.Requires that each county within the jurisdiction of the
regional entity must submit the measure to the voters of that
county. To pass, the measure must receive a majority vote of
the aggregate of all voters in all counties within the region.
The regional entity shall pay the costs of the election either
from the proceeds of the fee imposed or, if the vote fails,
from specified sales tax funds dedicated to local
transportation development.
4.States that if the mitigation fee a region imposes exceeds $2,
then all amounts above $2 shall be used to provide grants to
counties, cities, and congestion management agencies for
planning and projects related to implementation of an SCS or a
regional blueprint plan. The bill ensures that less populated
areas within the region will receive grants based on a
"return-to-source" formula.
5.Allows the regional entity to divide the revenues it receives
from the fee with the local air district, pursuant to an
agreement between the two, so that the air district can assist
local and regional governments in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
6.Directs DMV to collect any authorized mitigation fee and
transmit the revenue generated within a region to the entity
that imposed it. From revenues generated, DMV may deduct its
collection costs up to five percent of the amount collected in
the first year the fee is in place, three percent in year two,
and one percent each year thereafter. The bill does, however,
direct the first regional entity to impose a fee to contract
with DMV to pay for initial set up and programming costs
there, which DMV may deduct from fee revenue. Subsequent
regional entities to impose the fee would pay a pro-rata share
of these original set up and programming costs.
Planning Advisory and Assistance Council (PAAC)
Existing law establishes the Office of Planning and Research
(OPR) within the governor's office as the state's comprehensive
planning agency, responsible for helping local and regional
officials with land use planning. State law charges OPR with
coordinating state agencies' planning activities, including
directing OPR to prepare every four years a State Environmental
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Goals and Policies Report, a 20- to 30-year look ahead at state
growth and development.
Existing law creates the Planning Advisory and Assistance
Council (PAAC) to assist OPR in various land-use planning
related activities, including development of the State
Environmental Goals and Policies Report. OPR's Director appoints
the PAAC members, which must include:
Three city representatives, nominated by the League of
California Cities
Three county representatives, nominated by the
California State Association of Counties
One representative from each of the regional planning
districts designated by OPR
One representative of Indian tribes with reservations in
California
Existing law creates the Strategic Growth Council, consisting
of:
Director of OPR
Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency
Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency
Secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing
Agency
Secretary of the California Health and Human Services
Agency
A public member, appointed by the Governor
The Strategic Growth Council coordinates the activities and
funding programs of its member state agencies to improve air and
water quality, improve natural resources protection, increase
the availability of affordable housing, improve transportation,
meet the state's greenhouse gas emission goals, encourage
sustainable land use planning, and revitalize urban and
community centers. The council must recommend policies to the
governor, state agencies, and the Legislature to encourage the
development of sustainable communities and provide local
governments and regional agencies with data to assist in
planning sustainable communities.
This bill :
1.Changes the PAAC's membership to be:
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Three city representatives, nominated by the League of
California Cities
Three county representatives, nominated by the
California State Association of Counties
Seven representatives of specified regional planning
organizations
One member of the State Air Resources Board
One member of the California Transportation Commission
One member of the California Energy Commission
One member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly
One member appointed by the Senate Rules Committee
One representative of Indian tribes with reservations in
California
1.Assigns the PAAC five new duties, as follows:
i) Work with the Strategic Growth Council to facilitate the
implementation of regional blueprint projects.
ii) Facilitate coordination between regional blueprint plans
and state growth and infrastructure funding plans by
developing recommendations to specified state agencies.
iii) Receive reports, including the state's five-year
infrastructure plan.
iv) Report to the Legislature on how state agencies
implement the state's planning priorities.
v) Report to the Legislature on regional performance
measures that evaluate each region based on the PAAC's
criteria for improving the regions' employment,
environmental protection, education, housing, and mobility.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author and sponsor note that SB 375 requires that
each MPO develop an SCS reflecting preferred land uses as part
of its regional transportation plan. The SCS will build on
regional blueprints already being prepared in these regions.
Proponents note that the state has provided few resources to
implement SB 375 and its required sustainable communities
strategies. Regional and local governments need resources for
strategic planning and opportunities for coordination with
state agencies. The author introduced this bill to provide
those resources and the opportunity for greater coordination.
Specifically, this bill will allow for the imposition of an
up-to-$4 mitigation fee on the registration of all vehicles
within a region to fund development and implementation of
sustainable communities strategies or regional blueprints.
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This bill will allow the Planning and Advisory and Assistance
Council to coordinate state investments with these regional
plans.
2.A vote of the people ? The proponents of the bill indicate that
the vote required to impose this fee in a region responds to
Governor Schwarzenegger's several veto messages on bills
imposing surcharges on vehicle registrations, including last
year's SB 406 (DeSaulnier), a very similar measure. In many of
these veto messages the governor indicates that he does not
support imposing such fees absent a vote of the people. He
has, however, also signed bills that impose vehicle
registration fees without a vote of the people, including two
imposing a four-dollar surcharge in San Mateo County to
mitigate storm water run off and AB 118 (N??ez), Chapter 750,
Statutes of 2007, to help attain the state's climate change
policies.
The expense of an election seems out of proportion to a fee
that would be just a few dollars per car. In addition, an
election is not legally necessary, as evidenced by other
locally-imposed vehicle registration surcharges, such as those
for vehicle theft deterrence programs, air quality programs,
and abatement of abandoned vehicles.
3.Round numbers, please . DMV reports that it is difficult to
impose and collect fees that are not round dollar amounts.
This bill allows the imposition of a mitigation fee of up to
$4 , which means that a region could impose a fee of $1.67 or
any other amount, and in fact, all of the fees could vary,
further complicating DMV's collection responsibilities for the
many jurisdictions that could impose a fee under this bill.
The author or committee, therefore, may wish to amend the bill
to allow for the imposition of a fee only in round dollar
amounts.
4.Re-refer to Rules Committee . The committee has previously
heard two very similar bills as noted below, both of which
were first heard in the Senate Local Government Committee to
hear the provisions of the bill related to the Planning
Advisory and Assistance Council. It may be appropriate for
this bill to be heard in that committee, too. Therefore, any
motion to pass this bill should also include "re-refer to the
Rules Committee", so that Rules Committee may decide if the
bill should also be heard in the Local Government Committee.
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RELATED LEGISLATION
SB 406 (DeSaulnier) would have authorized regions, without a
vote of the people, to impose a surcharge on vehicle
registrations to pay for regional land use planning activities
and would have made changes to the membership and duties of the
Office of Planning and Research's Planning Advisory and
Assistance Council. Vetoed.
SB 1445 (DeSaulnier) increases by $1 the fee to register a
vehicle in this state to pay for regional land use planning
activities. This bill also makes changes to the membership and
duties of the Office of Planning and Research's Planning
Advisory and Assistance Council. Set for hearing in Assembly
Local Government Committee on June 28, 2010.
Assembly Votes are not relevant.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 23, 2010)
SUPPORT: Association of Bay Area Governments (sponsor) -
need letter
OPPOSED: None received.