BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1175
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1175 (Torlakson)
As Amended June 1, 2009
Majority vote
TRANSPORTATION 9-2 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Eng, Blumenfield, |Ayes:|De Leon, Ammiano, Charles |
| |Hayashi, Furutani, | |Calderon, Davis, Fuentes, |
| |Galgiani, Bonnie | |Hall, John A. Perez, |
| |Lowenthal, | |Price, Skinner, Solorio, |
| |John A. Perez, Solorio, | |Torlakson, Krekorian |
| |Torlakson | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+---------------------------|
|Nays:|Miller, Niello |Nays:|Nielsen, Duvall, Harkey, |
| | | |Miller, |
| | | |Audra Strickland |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Makes the Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges part of the
Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program (TBSRP); authorizes the Bay
Area Toll Authority (BATA) to submit regional measures to voters
for toll increases to fund improvements in toll bridge
corridors; and, makes other, related changes to existing
provisions related to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, toll
bridge maintenance, and operations. Specifically, this bill :
1) Directs the State Controller to collect unpaid bridge tolls,
high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane fees, and any relevant
interest, penalties, fines, or other charges from money owed
a person or entity from state income tax refunds or winnings
in the California State Lottery; prescribes procedures to
follow for these collections.
2) States legislative findings and declarations that the
Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges are in need of seismic safety
retrofit.
3) Makes these two bridges part of the TBSRP.
4) Transfers any cost overrun savings in the TBSRP to the Bay
Area Toll Account, under BATA and appropriates the savings to
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BATA for expenditure on the Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges.
5) Prescribes that BATA is responsible for providing all other
funds required to complete the seismic safety retrofit
projects on these bridges.
6) Authorizes BATA to increase the amount of tolls collected on
the seven state-owned San Francisco Bay Area toll bridges.
7) Applies provisions governing the Toll Bridge Program
Oversight Committee (TBPOC) to the seismic retrofit of the
Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges.
8) Coordinates bridge maintenance, operation, and bond
repayment expenses.
9) Continuously appropriates to the California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) money paid to Caltrans by BATA for
planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance,
repair, replacement, rehabilitation, and seismic retrofit of
state-owned toll bridges pursuant to TBSRP.
10)Eliminates the three-year time constraint for use of $20
million in Regional Measure (RM) 2 funds for TransLink, the
Bay Area's smart card for transit.
11)Grants BATA the authority to increase toll rates and
provides that the toll structures may vary from bridge to
bridge and may include discounts for carpools and electronic
toll collection (i.e., FastTrak).
12)Dictates that Caltrans must follow BATA's lead in the Bay
Area with regard to establishing HOV occupancy levels,
discounts, and HOV access criteria.
13)Authorizes BATA to increase tolls following voter approval
of additional regional measures.
14)Prescribes the election procedures to be followed relative
to additional regional measures.
15)Allows BATA to contribute to the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission (MTC), without limitations, in the form of
personnel services, office space, and funding; allows BATA to
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contribute on a reimbursement-for-cost basis, under certain
conditions.
EXISTING LAW :
16)Makes it illegal to evade payment of tolls or other charges
on any vehicle crossing or toll road.
17)Provides a financing plan to fund the TBSRP (for a total of
$8.685 billion); identifies the sources and amounts of
funding, including the authority to increase the seismic
retrofit surcharge on state-owned toll bridges in the Bay
Area, provides for a timeline of contributions, and
establishes numerous other financial and programmatic
requirements to complete TBSRP.
18)Creates the TBPOC, consisting of the Director of Caltrans,
the Executive Director of the California Transportation
Commission (CTC), and the Executive Director of MTC; vests
TBPOC with project oversight responsibilities for the TBSRP.
19)Specifically authorizes BATA to increase the toll rates
specified in the adopted toll schedule only if this is
necessary in order to enable the authority to meet its
obligations under any bond resolution or indenture.
20)Authorizes Caltrans and local authorities, with respect to
highways under the respective jurisdictions, to permit
preferential use of highway lanes for HOVs, under specific
conditions.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Potential unknown loss of state special fund revenue from
transferring all cost overrun saving in the TBSRP.
2) One-time costs of $950 million to retrofit the Antioch and
Dumbarton bridges, respectively, to be fully covered by a
future bridge toll increase to be imposed by BATA.
3) Potentially significant one-time costs for BATA to reimburse
county elections officials in the region for the incremental
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cost of conducting a regional measure asking voter approval
to fund transportation improvements. These costs would be
covered by bridge toll revenues.
COMMENTS : Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program: According to
MTC, "The Antioch Bridge (built in 1978), and the Dumbarton
Bridge (built in 1982) need seismic strengthening. Because
these bridges met seismic standards established after the 1971
Sylmar earthquake in Southern California, and were relatively
new when the state Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program
originally was established, neither was included in the first
round of investigations. However, due to findings from
subsequent quakes-including Loma Prieta in 1989, Northridge in
1994 and Kobe (Japan) in 1995-seismic standards now are much
higher. A two-year evaluation conducted by BATA and Caltrans
completed in December 2008 shows both bridges need significant
strengthening to protect public safety.
"The cost of retrofitting both bridges is estimated at $950
million. This includes $637 million for the Dumbarton Bridge
and $313 million for the Antioch Bridge. Over 40% of this total
cost estimate is to fund a contingency account so that
unexpected construction problems that may arise during the
four-year process will not affect the funding plans."
This bill will allow BATA to raise tolls on all seven Bay Area
bridges to cover the cost to retrofit these two bridges.
Toll Evasion: According to MTC, in 2007, toll evasions cost
BATA about $7 million. That amount has been reduced to about
$1.5 million, due to a comprehensive collection program but toll
evasion still remains a problem.
Future Regional Measures: MTC has had two regional measures to
date: Regional Measure (RM1) in 1998 raised tolls to a uniform
$1 and RM 2 in 2004 raised tolls by an additional $1. These two
measures were approved by voters to fund additional
transportation improvements in toll bridge corridors.
Current law requires MTC to obtain legislative authority to
submit a regional measures to Bay Area voters before it can
raise tolls. This bill provides MTC with streamlined authority
to submit regional measures to voters and requires that future
regional measures include infrastructure projects, acquisition
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of transit vehicles, transit operating assistance, and other
improvements to reduce congestion and to improve travel on Bay
Area bridges and related transportation corridors.
HOV Lanes: MTC is proposing creation of a region-wide, value
pricing HOV network. Because of this, it needs to ensure that
the Bay Area bridges are consistent with Bay Area freeways
relative to HOV usage so that, together, the region will be
served with a unified network.
Continuous Appropriation: A continuous appropriation will allow
MTC to continue TBSRP work in the event of a budget impasse,
which otherwise impedes the use of collected tolls until a
budget is resolved.
Related Legislation: AB 744 (Torrico) of 2009, would authorize
BATA to acquire, construct,
administer, and operate a value pricing HOV network program on
state highways within the geographic jurisdiction of MTC, as
specified; authorizes capital expenditures for this program to
be funded from program revenues, revenue bonds, and revenue
derived from tolls on state-owned toll bridges within the
geographic jurisdiction of the commission; authorizes the use of
the HOV lanes in the program by single-occupant vehicles for a
fee, as specified.
AB 744 passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and
will be sent to the Assembly Floor.
Analysis Prepared by : Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
FN: 0001292