Senate Bill No. 903
CHAPTER 107

An act to add Section 99270.8 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to transportation, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

[ Approved by Governor  July 16, 2018. Filed with Secretary of State  July 16, 2018. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 903, Cannella. Transportation Development Act: County of Stanislaus.
(1) Existing law authorizes transportation planning agencies to administer transit funding made available under the Transportation Development Act. Existing law imposes certain financial requirements on transit operators making claims for transit funds, including requirements that fare revenue collected by the operator cover a specified percentage of operating costs. In certain cases, transit operators are required to meet a higher percentage if they met that standard in the 1978–79 fiscal year.
This bill would authorize the Stanislaus Council of Governments, a transportation planning agency, when determining if specified operators have met the requirements for claims for transit funds for the 2018–19 and the 2019–20 fiscal years, to reduce the applicable ratio of fare revenues to operating cost for specified operators by up to 5 percentage points from the ratio that was effective during the 2015–16 fiscal year. If the Stanislaus Council of Governments acts pursuant to this authorization, the bill would require it, before January 1, 2020, to submit a report to the transportation policy committee of each house of the Legislature and to the Department of Transportation analyzing the options for organizing and supporting transit service in the county, as specified.
(2) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Stanislaus.
(3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(4) This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2020, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2021.
Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 99270.8 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:

99270.8.
 (a) This section shall only apply to an individual operator that both has its primary service area in the Stanislaus Council of Governments’ jurisdiction and files claims with the Stanislaus Council of Governments pursuant to Section 99260.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, in determining if an individual operator complies with Section 99268.1, 99268.2, 99268.3, 99268.4, 99268.5, or 99268.9, the Stanislaus Council of Governments may reduce the applicable ratio of fare revenues to operating cost for an individual operator by up to five percentage points from the ratio that was effective during the 2015–16 fiscal year.
(2) The Stanislaus Council of Governments may use the calculation method described in this section for calculations beginning with the 2018–19 fiscal year.
(c) (1) If the Stanislaus Council of Governments reduces an individual operator’s ratio pursuant to this section, the Stanislaus Council of Governments, before January 1, 2020, shall submit a report to the transportation policy committee of each house of the Legislature and to the department analyzing the options for organizing and supporting transit service in the county.
(2) The report shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(A) A description of the transit routes operating within the county.
(B) The service levels on those transit routes, including any planned expansions or consolidations.
(C) The ridership numbers for those transit routes.
(D) The annual budget numbers for the transit services provided by each individual operator in the county, including its ratio of fare revenues to operating cost and any salary increases since the enactment of this section.
(3) A report to be submitted pursuant to this subdivision shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(d) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2020, and, as of January 1, 2021, is repealed.

SEC. 2.

 The Legislature finds and declares that a special statute is necessary and that a general statute cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution because of the unique transit circumstances in the County of Stanislaus.

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 California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to ensure that the transit needs of individuals in the County of Stanislaus continue to be met and to preserve the transit system in that county, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.