Agency legislative analyst Gus Khouri and staff will provide updates on state and federal legislation and seek Committee input on recommended positions on draft legislation.
The draft state bill list (Attachment 1) includes several new bills that align with the Agency's adopted legislative program (Web Attachment 1).
The following bills are recommended for support:
- Assembly Bill (AB) 43 (Friedman): Traffic Safety, which would require the California Traffic Safety Program to include a traffic safety monitoring program that identifies and addresses locations with pedestrian- and bicyclist-related crashes. The bill would allow for the recalibration of speed limits in order to eliminate fatalities for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
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AB 117 (Beorner Horvath): Electric Bicycles, which would require the State Air Resources Board to establish and and administer the Electric Bicycle Rebate Pilot Project to provide rebates for purchases of electric bicycles.
- AB 361 (Rivas, Robert): Open meetings: local agencies: teleconferences, which would provide exemptions from the Ralph M. Brown Act’s meeting requirements to allow local jurisdictions to meet virtually during emergencies, provided the legislative body makes certain determinations by majority vote, publishes proper notice, and provides opportunity for public comment.
- Senate Bill (SB) 28 (Caballero): Rural Broadband and Digital Infrastructure Video Competition Reform Act of 2021, which would require the Department of Technology to compile an inventory of state-owned resources available for use in the deployment of broadband networks in rural, unserved, and underserved communities.
- SB 551 (Stern): California Electric Vehicle Authority, which would coordinate and streamline EV infrastructure deployment. The recommended support position is consistent with priority 4S.
- SB 792 (Glazer): Sales and use tax: retailers: reporting, which would require retailers to track the home of the purchaser, which could help Measure X revenues.
The following bills are recommended for opposition:
- AB 786 (Cervantes): California Transportation Commission (CTC): Executive Director, which would give the Governor the power to appoint the CTC Executive Director, who is currently hired by the eleven CTC Commissioners (nine of whom are appointed by the Governor).
- SB 542 (Limon): Zero-emission vehicles (ZEV): fees, which would repeal the ZEV fee that currently funds Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) grant programs.
- SB 771 (Becker): Sales and Use Tax Law: zero-emission vehicle exemption, which would exempt some ZEVs from sales taxes. This could impact Measure X revenues if the state did not reimburse local entities. Staff recommends an "oppose unless amended", requesting the author amend the bill to reimburse local entities for lost sales tax income.
Attachment 2, the state legislative report, notes that the state is now considering how to distribute the federal funding from the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021. California received $912 million from that legislation, which may be used for a wide variety of transportation purposes. The California Transportation Commission (CTC) is suggesting using the funding to backfill the shortfall in the State Highway Operations and Protection Program, primarily used for highway maintenance, and the State Transportation Improvement Program, which primarily funds major state highway and rail projects. Regional agencies, including TAMC and its sister agencies in the Central Coast Coalition, have proposed that this funding be allocated as much as possible to a discretionary grant program that funds multimodal local road and street projects, known as the Regional Surface Transportation Program. This discussion on the use of the federal funding is still underway.
At the federal level, President Biden is moving forward with his American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion recovery package that includes $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, among many features directly targeting the health and economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. He has indicated his interest in moving forward on an infrastructure package in 2021. Web Attachment 2 is an article that discusses some of the features of that package, which must be introduced by Congress, not the President. The current federal transportation authorization bill expires on September 30, 2021.
Congressmember Jimmy Panetta has introduced the "Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment Act" or "E-BIKE Act", which will provide a 30% tax credit, up to $1,500, for the purchase of E-Bikes (Attachment 3). Staff recommends the Agency support this legislation as consistent with the Agency's policy to support healthy, active transportation and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
On February 24, 2020, Senator Edward J. Markey (MA) and Congressman Steve Cohen (TN) re-introduced the Complete Streets Act of 2019, a bill that promotes safer and more accessible street design across the United States (Web Attachment 3). This Act would set aside federal funds to support Complete Streets projects (five percent of annual federal highway funds), require states to create a program to provide technical assistance and award funding for communities to build Complete Streets projects, and direct localities to adopt a Complete Streets policy that meets a minimum set of standards to access that dedicated funding. Staff recommends the Agency support this legislation as consistent with the Agency's policy to support safe streets and active transportation corridors.
Democrats have indicated that they will propose the return of federally-directed funding, a.k.a. earmarks, this year (Web Attachment 4). Before earmarks were banned in 2010, Monterey County did well in obtaining millions of dollars for the US 101 Prunedale Improvement Project, the State Route 156 improvements project, the Airport Boulevard/US 101 interchange project, and the Sanctuary Scenic Trail project. Staff recommends that the Agency go out to bid to hire a federal legislative analyst to assist in obtaining earmarks for its priority projects. One cost-effective way to do so might be to join with the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission in their upcoming solicitation for a new federal advocacy firm. Staff will present a verbal update and seek Committee input on this idea prior to entering into official discussions.