The Transportation Development Act provides two major sources of funding of public transportation in California. The first, the Local Transportation Fund is derived from a 1/4 cent of the general sales tax collected statewide. The second, the State Transit Assistance fund is derived from the statewide sales tax on diesel fuel and distributed back to transportation planning agencies on a population-based (Public Utilities Code 99313) and transit operator revenue-based (Public Utilities Code 99314) formula.
Each February, the Transportation Agency prepares an estimate of the Local Transportation funds it expects to be available in the coming fiscal year. Because the Transportation Agency expects lower revenues due to COVID-19, the February Local Transportation Fund estimate was reduced from $17,484,685 to $16,995,417.
Local Transportation Funds are apportioned to eligible uses in the following priority order, pursuant to state law:
- Transportation Agency Administration and Planning;
- Bicycle & pedestrian projects via the Transportation Development Act 2% program;
- Public transit by jurisdiction, based on population as reported by the Dept of Finance; and
- Construction and maintenance of local streets and roads.
Transit operators may use State Transit Assistance funds for transit operations and capital projects. For operations, new state law requires transit operators to comply with efficiency standards to demonstrate that the operating cost per revenue vehicle hour is increasing by no more than the Costumer Price Index. For capital projects, there are no restrictions.
Prior to allocating Local Transportation Funds, TAMC is required to conduct a public hearing and outreach to identify unmet transit needs. Because TAMC no longer allocates Local Transportation Funds to local streets and roads, TAMC is no longer required to adopt a finding on unmet transit needs. However, TAMC still continues to solicit input on unmet transit needs. The unmet transit needs process is attached. The unmet transit needs comment list serves as a public input tool for MST's short- and long-term transit service planning and improvements, and assists in prioritizing transit projects as funds become available. All comments are reviewed with MST staff to consider options to implement requests based on the time frame in which unmet transit needs can be met. Next, the Mobility Advisory Committee reviews the comments and provides input, and then the TAMC Board receives the final unmet transit needs comments list and allocates Local Transportation Funds and State Transit Assistance funds to MST.
This year, the Transportation Agency received the following comment:
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Unmet Need Comment
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Year Identified
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Category
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Timeline
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Status in 2019
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On-call public transit service to and from medical appointments and to county/government services
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2020
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N/A
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N/A
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MST's TRIPS Program currently meets this need for medical appointments. MST also offers on-call service in Marina and South County cities. Existing non-profit services in Monterey County meet this need for low-income individuals, seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans.
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In the upcoming fiscal year, MST is unable to meet several of the previously identified unmet transit needs in the attached list. For example, shuttle service to Pinnacles National Park and service to San Juan Grade Road and Russell Road in Salinas are both unmet transit needs that are cost-prohibitive at this time. Other needs have been addressed and are listed in the chart as "resolved."The unmet transit needs requests that are not able to be addressed this year will remain on the list and will be part of next year's unmet transit needs process.
Staff recommends that the Board approve MST's application and adopt Resolution 2020-10 (attached) allocating $22,193,789 in Transportation Development Act funds to MST for public transit service in Monterey County for fiscal year 2020-21.