Service authorities for freeway emergencies: San Diego County.

Existing law authorizes a service authority for freeway emergencies to be established in any county for the purpose of funding the installation of callboxes along freeways and expressways to enable motorists in need of aid to obtain assistance. Existing law provides that a service authority may impose an annual fee of $1 on vehicles registered in the county for this and other related purposes, which fee is collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) . This bill, with respect to the service authority created in the County of San Diego, would provide for the authority to be dissolved on January 1, 2013, and for the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) to become the successor authority and to assume the remaining responsibility for maintaining callboxes as of that date. The bill would require the authority to develop a plan, as specified, for transitioning its responsibilities to SANDAG in the transition period between the effective date of this bill and January 1, 2013, and would require SANDAG's approval for the authority to expend funds or enter into contracts during that transition period. The bill would limit the reserves that SANDAG, as the successor to the authority, may hold at the time this bill becomes effective to $4,000,000, and would require SANDAG to distribute, by March 31, 2013, any reserves in excess of that amount to cities in the County of San Diego, and to the county with respect to the unincorporated area of the county, in proportion to fees paid for purposes of the service authority in the 2010–11 fiscal year by residents of each city and the unincorporated area. The bill would require the recipient jurisdictions to use these revenues for the purposes for which the fees were collected. The bill would also require SANDAG to post its detailed budget relative to the revenues from the collection of the fee, and the expenditure of these funds, on its Internet Web site, as specified. The bill would also authorize SANDAG, as the successor authority, to continue funding specified helicopter programs. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would provide that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.