BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 427
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 25, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
AB 427 (John Perez) - As Amended: March 29, 2011
SUBJECT : Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and
Port Security Bond Act of 2006 (bond act): transit security
SUMMARY : Modifies bond act provisions to allow regional transit
agencies and the California Emergency Management Agency (CEMA)
to re-direct bond funds to projects that are ready to bid for
purposes of transit system safety, security, and disaster
response. Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes transit operators that receive funds from the bond
act account for intercity passenger rail systems and commuter
rail systems to also be eligible for funds designated for
capital expenditures of transportation planning agencies,
county transportation commissions, and other specified
transit-related agencies.
2)Requires an entity eligible to receive allocations from the
mass transit or intercity rail program funds to submit, within
45 days of the date the State Controller makes public the list
of eligible recipients, a document to CEMA that indicates the
intent to use the funds. Authorizes CEMA to reallocate those
funds from the entity if the document is not submitted.
3)Requires CEMA to notify a transportation planning agency if
funds allocated to an entity within the region of the
transportation planning agency are being reallocated and, if
the transportation planning agency provides a document within
30 days to CEMA indicating its intent to distribute the funds
to transit operators or rail operators. Requires the funds to
be allocated to the transportation planning agency.
4)Authorizes, if the transportation planning agency does not
submit documents to CEMA within 30 days, requires CEMA to
reallocate the funds on a competitive basis to an eligible
entity in a different region of the state. Thereafter, an
eligible entity that is notified that it will be receiving an
allocation, must respond to CEMA with its intent to use the
funds.
AB 427
Page 2
5)Requires CEMA, by May 1 of each year, to report to specified
committees of the Legislature and to the Legislative Analyst's
Office the following information:
a) A summary of the projects selected for funding during
the fiscal year in which awards were made;
b) The status of projects selected for funding in prior
fiscal years; and,
c) A list of all transit entities that have not used the
allocated funds.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes, pursuant to the bond act, the issuance of $19.925
billion of general obligation bonds for specified purposes.
Of this amount, requires the deposit of $1 billion of the bond
proceeds into the Transit System Safety, Security, and
Disaster Response Account (account) to be used, upon
appropriation, for capital projects that provide increased
protection against a security and safety threat, and for
capital expenditures to increase the capacity of transit
operators to develop disaster response transportation systems
that can move people, goods, and emergency personnel and
equipment in the aftermath of a disaster impairing that
movement.
2)Establishes CEMA, merging the Office of Emergency Services and
the Office of Homeland Security, responsible for overseeing
and coordinating emergency preparedness, response, recovery,
and homeland security activities.
3)Designates CEMA as the administrative agency for the account
and requires the separate allocation of capital expenditures
to transportation planning agencies, county transportation
commissions, and certain other transit-related agencies;
intercity passenger rail systems and commuter rail systems;
and San Francisco Bay Area regional public water ferry
services.
4)Provides that operators that receive those funds for intercity
passenger rail systems and commuter rail systems are not
eligible for those funds designated for capital expenditures
of transportation planning agencies, county transportation
AB 427
Page 3
commissions, and other specified transit-related agencies.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : This bill provides further refinements to the bond
act's Transit System Safety, Security, and Disaster Response
Program to ensure the timely expenditures of capital projects
and allowing flexibility to transit and intercity rail operators
who have ready-to-go transit system safety, security and
disaster response projects.
According to the author's office, "In 2007, the Legislature
approved SB 88 (Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review)
Chapter 181, Statutes of 2007, that implemented various
Proposition 1B programs including the implementation of the
Transit System Safety, Security, and Disaster Response Program.
Overall, the program implementation has been successful; however
opportunities for refinement have become apparent. The $1
billion bond program is subdivided into three sub programs: 60%
Mass Transit Program, 25% Regional Public Water Transit Agency
in the Bay Area, 15% Intercity Rail. The 60% Mass Transit
Program is governed by the State Transit Assistance (STA)
formula. Current law does not allow CEMA to re-direct funds in
the event that an STA eligible agency doesn't have need for the
funding. This bill allows bond funds to be re-directed to
shovel ready projects only in cases where the eligible agency
signals that they do not have needs for the funds. Current law
does not allow an entity receiving funds from the 15% Intercity
Rail Program to be eligible to receive funds from the 60% Mass
Transit Program. This bill removes that prohibition in order to
clarify and address the ambiguity in how this prohibition is
being implemented. The pending amendments will make clear that
agencies that receive funds from the 60% Mass Transit Program
may, at their discretion, use funds from the 60% Mass Transit
Program on eligible projects that receive funds from the 15%
Intercity Rail program."
Related legislation: AB 1350 (Nunez) of 2007, would have
modified provisions to the Transit System Safety, Security, and
Disaster Response Program. AB 1350 was held in the Senate
Appropriations Committee as its provisions were incorporated
into SB 88 (Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review)
Chapter 181, Statutes of 2007.
AB 105 (Assembly Committee on Budget) Chapter 6, Statutes of
AB 427
Page 4
2011, among other items in the transportation budget trailer
bill, allows waterborne transit agencies an additional year to
expend bond act funds.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None received
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by : Ed Imai / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093