Bill Text: CA AB2049 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Bonds: transportation.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 8-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From committee without further action. [AB2049 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB2049-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2049 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Melendez
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Travis Allen, Baker, Gallagher,
Harper, Jones, Patterson, and Wilk)
FEBRUARY 17, 2016
An act to add Section 2704.096 to the Streets and Highways Code,
relating to transportation, and declaring the urgency thereof, to
take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2049, as introduced, Melendez. Bonds: transportation.
Existing law, the California High-Speed Rail Act, creates the
High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed rail
system in the state. Existing law, the Safe, Reliable High-Speed
Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters
as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, general election,
provides for the issuance of $9 billion in general obligation bonds
for high-speed rail purposes and $950 million for other related rail
purposes. Article XVI of the California Constitution requires
measures authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single
object or work to be funded by the bonds and further requires a bond
act to be approved by a 2/3 vote of each house of the Legislature and
a majority of the voters.
This bill would provide that no further bonds shall be sold for
high-speed rail purposes pursuant to the Safe, Reliable High-Speed
Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, expect as specifically
provided with respect to an existing appropriation for high-speed
rail purposes for early improvement projects in the Phase I blended
system. The bill, subject to the above exception, would require
redirection of the unspent proceeds received from outstanding bonds
issued and sold for other high-speed rail purposes prior to the
effective date of these provisions, upon appropriation, for use in
retiring the debt incurred from the issuance and sale of those
outstanding bonds. The bill, subject to the above exception, would
also require the net proceeds of other bonds subsequently issued and
sold under the high-speed rail portion of the bond act to be made
available, upon appropriation, to fund projects in the State
Transportation Improvement Program and the State Highway Operation
and Protection Program, and to fund projects eligible for funding
from the Trade Corridors Improvement Fund. The bill would make no
changes to the authorization under the bond act for issuance of $950
million for rail purposes other than high-speed rail. These
provisions would become effective only upon approval by the voters at
the next statewide general election.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 2704.096 is added to the Streets and Highways
Code, to read:
2704.096. (a) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this
chapter, and except as provided in paragraph (2), no further bonds
shall be issued and sold for purposes of Section 2704.06 on and after
the effective date of this section.
(2) This section shall not apply to bonds issued and sold for
purposes of Section 2704.06 with respect to the appropriation in Item
2665-104-6043 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2012, as added by
Section 3 of Chapter 152 of the Statutes of 2012.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, and
except as otherwise provided in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a), the
unspent proceeds received from outstanding bonds issued and sold
pursuant to Section 2704.06 prior to the effective date of this
section shall, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be redirected
from high-speed rail purposes for use in retiring the debt incurred
from the issuance and sale of those outstanding bonds.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the
remaining unissued bonds, as of the effective date of this section,
that were previously authorized pursuant to Section 2704.06, except
as otherwise provided in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a), are hereby
authorized to be issued and sold, with the net proceeds, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, to be made available as follows:
(1) Forty percent to fund projects in the State Transportation
Improvement Program.
(2) Forty percent to fund projects in the State Highway Operation
and Protection Program.
(3) Twenty percent to be deposited in the Trade Corridors
Improvement Fund for expenditure pursuant to Chapter 4.8 (commencing
with Section 2192).
SEC. 2. Section 1 of this act would modify the single object or
work of a general obligation bond act previously submitted to the
voters by the Legislature pursuant to Section 1 of Article XVI of the
California Constitution, and subsequently approved by the voters as
Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, statewide general election.
Accordingly, Section 1 of this act shall become effective only upon
approval by the voters. The Secretary of State shall submit Section 1
of this act to the voters on the ballot of the next statewide
general election.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to make necessary amendments to the Safe, Reliable
High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century as quickly
as possible to prevent certain further expenditures of state bond
funds for a high-speed rail project that differs in both cost and
substance from the project approved by voters in 2008, and to obtain
voter approval to redirect certain net proceeds of future bonds under
that act to other transportation capital improvement projects, it is
necessary that this act take effect immediately.
