BILL NUMBER: AB 914 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 4, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 3, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 30, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 29, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 8, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Brown
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Chang, Linder, Mayes, Obernolte,
Rodriguez, and Steinorth)
(Coauthor: Senator Leyva)
FEBRUARY 26, 2015
An act to add Section 149.11 to the Streets and Highways Code,
relating to transportation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 914, as amended, Brown. Toll facilities: County of San
Bernardino.
Existing law provides for the Department of Transportation and
local authorities, with respect to highways under their respective
jurisdictions, to authorize or permit exclusive or preferential use
of highway lanes for high-occupancy vehicles (HOVs). Existing law
authorizes the development and implementation of a value-pricing
program consisting of high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in various
corridors under certain circumstances, pursuant to which vehicles
that do not meet the vehicle occupancy requirements for use of an HOV
lane may use the lane upon payment of a toll.
This bill would authorize the San Bernardino County Transportation
Commission to conduct, administer, and operate a value-pricing
program that includes HOT lanes and other toll facilities on
Interstate Highway Routes 10 and 15 in the County of San Bernardino
and, with the agreement of affected transportation agencies,
specified extensions and connections into the Counties of Los Angeles
and Riverside. The bill would require the toll revenues to be spent
for specified transportation purposes and would authorize the
commission to issue revenue bonds payable from toll revenues. The
bill would require the commission to report to the Legislative
Analyst on specified matters within 3 years of commencement of
revenue collection from the value-pricing program. The bill would
enact other related provisions.
This bill would become operative only if AB 194 is also enacted
and becomes operative on or before January 1, 2016.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 149.11 is added to the Streets and Highways
Code, to read:
149.11. (a) (1) Notwithstanding Sections 149 and 30800 of this
code, and Section 21655.5 of the Vehicle Code, the San Bernardino
County Transportation Commission, created pursuant to Section 130054
of the Public Utilities Code, may conduct, administer, and operate a
value-pricing program in the Interstate 10 and Interstate 15
corridors in the County of San Bernardino. The value-pricing program
may include high-occupancy toll lanes or other toll facilities. The
San Bernardino County Transportation Commission may also extend the
program to include the approaching and departing connectors on
Interstate 10 extending into the County of Los Angeles, as designated
by an agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, and the connection to the Interstate 15
express lanes project in the County of Riverside, as designated by an
agreement with the Riverside County Transportation Commission. The
San Bernardino County Transportation Commission may exercise its
existing powers of eminent domain pursuant to Section 130220.5 of the
Public Utilities Code to acquire property necessary to carry out the
purposes of the value-pricing program.
(2) The value-pricing program authorized pursuant to paragraph (1)
may only be implemented upon a determination that the program and
the resulting facilities will improve the performance of the affected
corridors. Improved performance may be demonstrated by factors that
include, but are not limited to, increased passenger throughput or
improved travel times. The San Bernardino County Transportation
Commission shall make the determination required by this paragraph in
a public meeting prior to operation of the value-pricing program.
(3) The San Bernardino County Transportation Commission shall have
the authority to set, levy, and collect tolls, user fees, or other
similar charges payable for the use of the toll facilities in the
County of San Bernardino, and any other incidental or related fees or
charges, and to collect those revenues, in a manner determined by
the San Bernardino County Transportation Commission, in amounts as
required for the following expenditures relative to the program and
for the purposes of paragraph (4):
(A) Development, including the costs of design, construction,
right-of-way acquisition, and utilities adjustment.
(B) Operations and maintenance, including, but not limited to,
insurance, collection, and enforcement of tolls, fees, and charges.
(C) Repair, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.
(D) Indebtedness incurred and internal loans and advances,
including related financial costs.
(E) Administration, which shall not exceed 3 percent of the
revenues of toll facilities and associated transportation facilities.
(F) Reserves for the purposes described in subparagraphs (A) to
(E), inclusive.
(4) All revenue generated pursuant to paragraph (3) in excess of
the expenditure needs of that paragraph shall be used exclusively for
the benefit of the transportation corridors included in the
value-pricing program created pursuant to this section. These excess
revenue expenditures shall be described in an excess revenue
expenditure plan developed in consultation with the department and
adopted and periodically updated by the board of directors of the San
Bernardino County Transportation Commission and may include, but
need not be limited to, the following eligible expenditures:
(A) Expenditures to enhance transit service designed to reduce
traffic congestion within the transportation corridors included in
the value-pricing program created pursuant to this section. Eligible
expenditures include, but are not limited to, transit operating
assistance, the acquisition of transit vehicles, and transit capital
improvements otherwise eligible to be funded under the state
transportation improvement program pursuant to Section 164.
(B) Expenditures to make operational or capacity improvements
designed to reduce traffic congestion or improve the flow of traffic
in the transportation corridors included in the value-pricing program
created pursuant to this section. Eligible expenditures include, but
are not limited to, any phase of project delivery to make capital
improvements to on ramps, off ramps, connector roads, roadways,
bridges, or other structures that are necessary for or related to the
tolled or nontolled transportation facilities in the transportation
corridors included in the value-pricing program created pursuant to
this section.
(5) To the extent the San Bernardino County Transportation
Commission plans to extend the value-pricing program into the
Counties of Los Angeles or Riverside, it shall enter into an
agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation
Authority or the Riverside County Transportation Commission, as
applicable, subject to approval of the board of directors of the San
Bernardino County Transportation Commission and the board of
directors of the affected entity. If the value-pricing program
developed and operated by the San Bernardino County Transportation
Commission connects to, or is near, similar toll facilities
constructed and operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority or the Riverside County Transportation
Commission, the respective entities shall enter into an agreement
providing for the coordination of the toll facilities operated by
each entity.
(b) (1) The San Bernardino County Transportation Commission shall
carry out the program in cooperation with the Department of the
California Highway Patrol pursuant to an agreement that addresses all
matters related to enforcement on state highway system facilities in
connection with the value-pricing program, and with the department
pursuant to an agreement that addresses all matters related to the
design, construction, maintenance, and operation of state highway
system facilities in connection with the value-pricing program,
including, but not limited to, financing, repair, rehabilitation, and
reconstruction.
(2) The San Bernardino County Transportation Commission shall be
responsible for reimbursing the department and the Department of the
California Highway Patrol for costs related to the toll facility
pursuant to an agreement between the San Bernardino County
Transportation Commission and the department and between the San
Bernardino County Transportation Commission and the Department of the
California Highway Patrol.
(c) Single-occupant vehicles that are certified or authorized by
the San Bernardino County Transportation Commission for entry into,
and use of, the high-occupancy toll lanes implemented pursuant to
this section are exempt from Section 21655.5 of the Vehicle Code, and
the driver shall not be in violation of the Vehicle Code because of
that entry and use.
(d) (1) The San Bernardino County Transportation Commission may
issue bonds at any time to finance any costs necessary to implement
the program established pursuant to this section and any expenditures
provided for in paragraphs (3) and (4) of subdivision (a), payable
from the revenues generated from the program and any other sources of
revenues available to the San Bernardino County Transportation
Commission that may be used for these purposes, including, but not
limited to, sales tax revenue, development impact fees, or state and
federal grants.
(2) The maximum bonded indebtedness that may be outstanding at any
one time shall not exceed an amount that may be serviced from the
projected revenues available as described in paragraph (1).
(3) The bonds shall bear interest at a rate or rates not exceeding
the maximum allowable by law, payable at intervals determined by the
San Bernardino County Transportation Commission.
(4) Any bond issued pursuant to this subdivision shall contain on
its face a statement to the following effect:
"Neither the full faith and credit nor the taxing power of the
State of California is pledged to the payment of principal of, or
interest on, this bond."
(5) Bonds shall be issued pursuant to a resolution of the
governing board of the San Bernardino County Transportation
Commission adopted by a majority vote of its governing board. The
resolution or bond authorizing instrument shall state all of the
following:
(A) The purposes for which the proposed debt is to be incurred.
(B) The estimated cost of accomplishing those purposes.
(C) The amount of the principal of the indebtedness.
(D) The maximum term of the bonds and the maximum interest rate.
(E) The denomination or denominations of the bonds, which shall
not be less than five thousand dollars ($5,000).
(F) The form of the bonds.
(e) Not later than three years after the San Bernardino County
Transportation Commission first collects revenues from the program
authorized by this section, the San Bernardino County Transportation
Commission shall submit a report to the Legislative Analyst on its
findings, conclusions, and recommendations concerning the program.
The report shall include an analysis of the effect of the
transportation facilities on the adjacent mixed-flow lanes and any
comments submitted by the department and the Department of the
California Highway Patrol regarding operation of the transportation
facilities.
(f) This section shall not prevent the department or any local
agency from constructing improvements in the transportation corridors
that compete with the program, and the San Bernardino County
Transportation Commission shall not be entitled to compensation for
the adverse effects on toll revenue due to those competing
improvements.
(g) If any provision of this section or the application thereof is
held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or
applications of this section that can be given effect without the
invalid provision or application, and to this extent the provisions
are severable.
(h) Nothing in this section shall authorize the conversion of any
existing nontoll or nonuser-fee lanes into tolled or user-fee lanes,
except that a high-occupancy vehicle lane may be converted into a
high-occupancy toll lane.
SEC. 2. This act shall become operative only if
Assembly Bill 194 of the 2015-16 Regular Session is also
enacted and becomes operative on or before January 1, 2016.