BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 1778
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: williams
VERSION: 5/1/2012
Analysis by: Art Bauer FISCAL: No
Hearing date: July 3, 2012
SUBJECT:
Local transportation funds
DESCRIPTION:
This bill provides that any Transportation Development Act (TDA)
funds Ventura County has apportioned to local jurisdictions that
are not encumbered within one year, or expended within two
years, be returned to the Ventura County Transportation
Commission (VCTC) for redistribution to transit operators that
are otherwise eligible to receive TDA funds.
ANALYSIS:
The Legislature enacted the Transportation Development Act
(TDA), Senate Bill 325, Chapter 1400, Statutes of 1971, in order
to ensure "the efficient and orderly movement of people and
goods in the urban areas of the state." Although the focus of
the law is the provision of transit services in urban areas, it
recognizes that rural areas have a different mix of
transportation needs. To this end, revenues from the tax must be
used for public transit purposes in counties with a population
greater than 500,000 as of the 1970 census. Counties with a
population under 500,000 as of 1970 may use the revenues for
transit and for local streets and roads. In 2010, the statewide
local percent sales tax generated $1.1 billion for
transportation, about 6 percent of which rural counties used for
local street and road purposes.
Beginning in 2014, SB 716 (Wolk), Chapter 609, Statutes of 2009,
removes the exemption for counties under 500,000 as of 1970 and
now requires all counties over 500,000 as of the 2000 decennial
census and each subsequent decennial census to use their TDA
funds for transit in the counties' urbanized areas. Funds
apportioned to non-urbanized areas within a county may be used
for either public transit or local roads. A city in an
urbanized area, and not within a transit district, that has a
AB 1778 (WILLIAMS) Page 2
population of less than 100,000 may use its funds for either
transit or roads.
In the case of Ventura County, SB 716 provides that VCTC may
prepare a report analyzing options for organizing public transit
services in the county and expenditure options for TDA revenues,
as well as recommending a legislative proposal to implement the
plan. SB 716 requires VCTC to submit a report to the Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee and the Assembly
Transportation Committee by December 31, 2011. If the
legislative proposal is not enacted during the 2011-2012
session, then SB 716 requires that all TDA funds in the county
as of July 1, 2014, and each year thereafter, be used
exclusively for public mass transit purposes.
This bill requires that TDA funds Ventura County apportions to
local jurisdictions after 2014, which remain unencumbered for
more than one year and unspent after two years, are returned to
VCTC for reapportionment to public transit operators or to
operators of transportation services for the elderly and
disabled.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . This bill is intended to ensure that after 2014 all
TDA funds will be available for public transit purposes in
Ventura County. The author believes that the reluctance to
use TDA funds for public transit of many local jurisdictions
in the past will result in TDA funds not being spent for
transit in Ventura County after 2014. This bill, according to
the author, ensures that TDA funds will not sit idle but will
be redistributed to public transit operators in the county.
2.Background . When the TDA was enacted in 1971, nine counties
in California exceeded 500,000 persons in population: Alameda,
Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San
Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. Existing
law requires these counties to use TDA funds for public
transportation. By the 2000 federal census, five additional
counties exceeded 500,000 in population: Fresno, Kern, San
Joaquin, Riverside, and Ventura, but under the TDA these
counties still had the option to use the funds for either
transit or streets and roads. SB 716 ensured that this
anomaly no longer continued, but
AB 1778 (WILLIAMS) Page 3
SB 716 does not specify a time by which the local
jurisdictions must spend the TDA funds. Ventura County
strongly opposed the provisions of SB 716. As a compromise,
the bill allowed VCTC to prepare an analysis of organizational
options for providing public transit in the county and submit
a report to the Legislature. VCTC submitted this report in
April. In summary the report recommends:
That transit services currently being provided by a
joint powers agency in western Ventura County, including
the cities of Oxnard, Port Hueneme, and Ventura, be
recreated as a special transit district. All TDA funds
generated in the district's area of jurisdiction would be
committed to public transit.
That there be no more than two entities to provide
service for the elderly and disabled, one in the eastern
part of the county and one in the western part.
That the east county cities, including Simi Valley,
Moorpark, and Thousand Oaks, continue to use TDA funds for
either transit or streets and roads.
The report in essence wants to carve out an exemption for
Ventura County and allow the communities in the eastern part
of the county to operate as they had prior to SB 716. This
would nullify the policy objectives of SB 716.
1.Bank or spend the funds . Although SB 716 requires that local
jurisdictions spend TDA funds for transit in counties over
500,000, subject to certain conditions, a city that is not
within a transit district may choose to fund a community-
based transit service or it may put the funds in a reserve
account and let the funds accumulate. This bill's goal is to
avoid this situation by requiring VCTC to allocate to transit
programs any funds not encumbered or expended after a certain
period of time.
2.Opposition to this bill . The Ventura County Transportation
Commission opposes this bill. In its letter to the author,
VCTC requests that "your measure be amended to reflect the
final recommendations? in the VCTC Regional Transit Study."
VCTC also points out that the county is the largest in the
state without a voter-approved local transportation sales tax.
Local officials have often made the point to staff that
allowing the use of TDA funds for local streets and roads
AB 1778 (WILLIAMS) Page 4
offsets the voters' refusal to enact a sales tax.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 49-23
Trans: 9-3
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 27, 2012)
SUPPORT: Los Padres Chapter of the Sierra Club
Alan Sanders, President of the Ormond Beach
Observers
OPPOSED: Ventura County Transportation Commission
City of Camarillo
City of Simi Valley