BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1077
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Date of Hearing: August 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 1077 (DeSaulnier) - As Amended: August 4, 2014
Policy Committee:
TransportationVote:10-4
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill establishes a task force to guide development and
evaluation of a pilot program to assess a mileage-based fee
(MBF) as an alternative to the gas tax, and requires the
California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) to implement and
evaluate the pilot program. Specifically, this bill:
1)Establishes a 14-member task force, as specified, to study MBF
alternatives to the gas tax, as specified, and make
recommendations to Caltrans and the California Transportation
Commission (CTC) on the design of a pilot program to test
alternative MBF approaches.
2)Entitles task force members to compensation of $100 per day,
when approved by the CTC, plus necessary expenses incurred by
a member in performance of their duties.
3)Authorizes Caltrans to provide staff support to the task force
as requested.
4)Requires the CTC to approve the design of the pilot program by
January 1, 2016.
5)Requires CalSTA, based on the task force recommendations and
by January 1, 2017, to implement a pilot program, as
specified, to identify and evaluation issues related to
possible implementation of an MBF program in California.
6)Requires CalSTA to report, as specified, its findings and
recommendations regarding the pilot program by January 1,
2018.
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FISCAL EFFECT
1)One-time costs to support the task force would be about
$350,000 for two positions. Additional costs to compensate
task force members and to hold some task force meetings
throughout the state would depend on the number of meetings,
but could total in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars.
2)One-time costs for the pilot project would depend in part on
the number of vehicles and locations involved. Caltrans
estimates a cost of anywhere from $1 million to $20 million.
Given the significant impact that changing to a MBF system
would have on the state, it is assumed the study should be as
representative as possible, which implies a cost at the higher
end of Caltans' range.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Since 1923, California and the rest of the nation has
relied heavily on gas taxes to support its local streets and
roads and state highway system. Gas taxes have the benefit of
being fairly inexpensive to administer, and, until recently,
they have been a reasonably equitable means of distributing
the tax burden amongst drivers in rough proportion to their
use of the roadway system.
The gas tax is no longer a viable, sustainable revenue source,
however. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic
Policy, two important developments have combined to greatly
reduce the functionality of the gas tax:
a) The purchasing power of gas tax revenues has declined
significantly due to inflation. If current tax rates, set
in 1994, remain unchanged through 2035, real gas tax
revenue will have declined by over 40%.
b) Improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency, which benefit
the environment, have cut directly into gas tax revenues by
allowing drivers to travel farther distances while buying
less gasoline. With vehicle fuel efficiency set to nearly
double in the next 20 years, gas tax revenues will be cut
nearly in half.
The alternative to the gas tax most often cited across the
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nation is MBFs. According to the RAND Corporation, MBFs
promise more stable revenue than gas taxes and distribute the
tax burden in proportion to travel, with greater precision.
And because the fees are tied to travel rather than gas
consumption, the revenue stream is immune to changes in fuel
economy or even fuel type.
CalSTA is working with stakeholders to develop a strategy and
recommendations for proceeding with some sort of pilot program
to explore an MBF program. The stakeholder group is expected
to complete its initial review by the end of the summer.
Concurrent with this effort, Caltrans recently joined with
other western state departments of transportation in a
consortium to explore the technical and operational
feasibility of a multi-jurisdictional MBF system. Oregon is at
the forefront of this effort, having just enacted the nation's
first permanent MBF program. SB 1077 is modeled after
legislation that guided Oregon's MBF pilot program.
2)Prior Legislation . In 2010, SB 1299 (Lowenthal), which would
have required DMV to implement a similar MBF pilot program,
was held on Suspense in Senate Appropriations.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081