Bill Text: CA SB498 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Trade Corridors Improvement Fund: grant program: short-line railroads.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2019-06-06 - Referred to Com. on TRANS. [SB498 Detail]
Download: California-2019-SB498-Amended.html
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Amended
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Senate
May 21, 2019 |
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Amended
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Senate
April 22, 2019 |
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Amended
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Senate
April 01, 2019 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
| Senate Bill | No. 498 |
| Introduced by Senator Hurtado |
February 21, 2019 |
An act to amend Section 8879.52 of the Government Code, relating to transportation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 498, as amended, Hurtado.
Trade Corridors Improvement Fund: grant program: short-line railroads.
The Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006, approved by the voters as Proposition 1B at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, authorizes the issuance of $19.925 billion of general obligation bonds for specified purposes, including $2 billion to be transferred to the Trade Corridors Improvement Fund (TCIF), created by the bond act. The bond act makes the moneys in the TCIF available, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act by the Legislature and subject to such conditions and criteria as the Legislature may provide by statute, for allocation by the California Transportation Commission for infrastructure improvements along federally designated Trade Corridors of National Significance or along other corridors that have a high volume of freight movement, as determined by the commission. Existing law designates the commission as
the administrative agency responsible for programming funds in the TCIF and authorizes the commission to adopt guidelines for the TCIF program.
This bill would require the commission, with respect to specified upon appropriation by the Legislature of funds resulting from TCIF program savings, to establish a competitive grant program to provide grants from those funds in the 2020–21 and 2021–22 fiscal years to the Department of Transportation and or regional transportation planning agencies, or both, for short-line railroad projects such as railroad reconstruction, maintenance, upgrade, or
replacement. The bill would require the commission to adopt guidelines, in consultation with representatives from specified government and industry entities, by July 1, 2020, to be used by the commission to select grant recipients.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
(a) This act shall be known, and may be cited as, the Short-Line Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2019.(b) The Legislature finds and declares both of the following:
(1) The primary objective of this act is to promote the recommendations made in the 2018 California State Rail Plan with regard to enabling short-line railroads to meet critical volume thresholds.
(2) The act seeks to accomplish this objective by providing financial assistance through grant funding for infrastructure improvements necessary to
facilitate short-line railroads becoming more compatible in supporting modern rail freight traffic and with the communities and industries they serve throughout California.
SEC. 2.
Section 8879.52 of the Government Code is amended to read:8879.52.
(a) The commission shall evaluate, consistent with the commission’s Trade Corridors Improvement Fund (TCIF) Guidelines, adopted November 27, 2007, as part of the 2010 TCIF review, the total potential costs and total potential economic and noneconomic benefits of the program to California’s economy, environment, and public health. The commission shall consult with the State Air Resources Board in order to use the appropriate models, techniques, and methods to develop the evaluation required by this subdivision.(b) With respect to the two billion dollars ($2,000,000,000) appropriated from the TCIF, as described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of Section 8879.23, and the five
hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) to be made available from the State Highway Account, the following programming schedule shall apply:
(1) The Los Angeles/Inland Empire Corridor shall receive a minimum of one billion five hundred million dollars ($1,500,000,000).
(2) The San Diego/International Border Corridor shall receive a minimum of two hundred fifty million dollars ($250,000,000).
(3) The San Francisco Bay/Central Valley Corridor shall receive a minimum of six hundred forty million dollars ($640,000,000).
(4) Other corridors, as determined by the commission, shall receive a minimum of sixty million dollars ($60,000,000).
(c) The corridors referenced in subdivision (b) shall receive the minimum amount of funding programmed for that corridor notwithstanding the deprogramming of any project or projects in that corridor by the commission. If a project is is, or projects are are, deprogrammed, the commission shall collaborate with the local transportation agencies in that corridor to select another project or projects for programming of those funds within the minimum amount provided to each corridor pursuant to subdivision
(b).
(d) If the Colton Crossing project programmed in the commission’s TCIF Program as of April 10, 2008, does not meet the requirements or delivery schedule contained in its project baseline agreement when reviewed by the commission no later than March 2010, the project shall be ineligible to receive an allocation from the TCIF. The ninety-seven million dollars ($97,000,000) associated with the project shall then be available for programming in the Los Angeles/Inland Empire Corridor. In that event, the commission shall collaborate with the local transportation agencies in that corridor to select another project or projects for programming of those funds, and, in making that selection, shall take into consideration the Los Angeles/Inland Empire Corridor Tier One or Tier Two Project Lists and any other project identified by the local
agencies. Projects currently receiving TCIF funding shall not be considered for selection.
(e) (1) The commission shall report to the Assembly Committee on Transportation, the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing, the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, the Assembly Committee on Budget, the Senate Committee on Appropriations, and the Assembly Committee on Appropriations a summary of any memorandum of understanding, along with a copy of the memorandum, or any agreement executed between a railroad company and any state or local transportation agency as it relates to any project funded with moneys allocated from the TCIF within 30 days of the commission’s receipt of those documents.
(2) Commencing January 1, 2012, the commission shall
provide semiannual reports to the Assembly Committee on Transportation, the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing, the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, the Assembly Committee on Budget, the Senate Committee on Appropriations, and the Assembly Committee on Appropriations on the status of all railroad projects programmed in the TCIF program.
(3) This subdivision shall become inoperative on January 1, 2015, pursuant to Section 10231.5.
(f) (1) With respect to funds resulting from TCIF program savings that have not been allocated as of January 1, 2020, the The commission
shall establish a competitive grant program to provide grants in the 2020–21 and 2021–22 fiscal years from those funds to the department or regional transportation planning agencies, or both, for short-line railroad projects such as railroad reconstruction, maintenance, upgrade, or replacement. The commission shall establish the grant program in accordance with all of the following:
(A) (i) The commission shall adopt guidelines for the grant program in consultation with the Transportation Agency, one representative from a regional transportation planning agency, and one representative from the Class III railroad industry.
(ii) The guidelines shall be used by the commission to select grant
recipients and shall be consistent with the goals and objectives of the 2018 California State Rail Plan with regard to short-line railroad infrastructure investment.
(iii) The guidelines shall include performance metrics and shall require an applicant to demonstrate its ability to achieve those performance metrics in its application. The performance metrics shall include, but are not limited to, requiring an applicant to demonstrate that its project will improve the ability to move freight and will have a useful life of no less than 10
15 years.
(iv) The guidelines shall specify that awarded grant funds shall not be used to support the operations of any rail system.
(v) The commission shall adopt the guidelines by July 1, 2020, and shall provide a 90-day public comment period before adopting the guidelines.
(B) The commission shall determine the amount of the grant award subject to the following requirements:
(i) The amount of a grant awarded shall not exceed 50 percent of the total project cost.
(ii) In order to be awarded a grant,
at least 30 percent of the total project cost shall be provided from nongovernmental sources.
(iii) A grant shall not exceed 25 percent of the total funding available in a fiscal year.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “railroad reconstruction, maintenance, upgrading, or
replacement” means the reconstruction, maintenance, or replacement of railroad right-of-way infrastructure, including, but not limited to, track, roadbed, bridges, industrial leads, and track-related structures on Class III railroads railroads, as defined by the United States Surface Transportation Board as of January 1, 2020. “Railroad reconstruction, maintenance, upgrading, or replacement” shall also include new construction of industrial leads, switches, spurs and sidings, and extensions of existing sidings.
(3) The operation of this subdivision is contingent upon an
appropriation by the Legislature of an amount up to, but not exceeding, eight million dollars ($8,000,000), for purposes of this subdivision from funds resulting from TCIF program savings.
