Transportation.

(1) Existing law imposes an excise tax on motor vehicle fuel (gasoline) . Existing law, as a result of the elimination of the sales tax on gasoline effective July 1, 2010, provides for a commensurate increase in the excise tax on gasoline. Article XIX of the California Constitution requires gasoline excise tax revenues from motor vehicles traveling upon public streets and highways to be deposited in the Highway Users Tax Account, for allocation to city, county, and state transportation purposes. Existing law generally provides for statutory allocation of gasoline excise tax revenues attributable to other modes of transportation, including aviation, boats, agricultural vehicles, and off-highway vehicles, to particular accounts and funds for expenditure on purposes associated with those other modes. Expenditure of the gasoline excise tax revenues attributable to those other modes is not restricted by Article XIX of the California Constitution. This bill, with respect to the increase in gasoline excise taxes as a result of the elimination of the sales tax on gasoline, would instead transfer the revenues attributable to aviation, boats, agricultural vehicles, and off-highway vehicles to the General Fund, commencing July 1, 2012, and ending June 30, 2015. The bill, with respect to these revenues already transferred to the particular nonhighway accounts and funds in the 2010–11 and 2011–12 fiscal years, would also transfer those revenues to the General Fund. Commencing July 1, 2015, the bill would instead transfer these revenues to the Highway Users Tax Account for allocation to state and local transportation purposes. Because that account is continuously appropriated, the bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing law provides for the payment of current year general obligation bond debt service for specified voter-approved transportation bonds from various revenues deposited in the Transportation Debt Service Fund, including revenues from vehicle weight fees in the State Highway Account. Existing law also authorizes certain loans of vehicle weight fee revenue to the General Fund. Existing law, for the 2011–12 fiscal year, appropriates $866,300,000 from weight fee revenues in the State Highway Account for transfer to the General Fund as debt service reimbursement and loans. Existing law requires the Controller, upon notification by the Director of Finance that all debt service costs for the 2011–12 fiscal year have been reimbursed, to transfer any remaining weight fee revenues for that fiscal year in the State Highway Account to the General Fund as a loan until the $866,300,000 has been transferred to the General Fund. This bill would instead appropriate, for the fiscal year 2011–12, all annual revenue generated from the weight fees in the State Highway Account, excluding an amount equal to a loan of $43,700,000 authorized pursuant to the Budget Act of 2011, for transfer to the General Fund as debt service reimbursement and loans. Any revenues for that fiscal year that remain after reimbursement of the debt service costs would be transferred to the General Fund as a loan, and the bill would require $42,000,000 of those revenues to be transferred on July 1, 2012. (3) Existing law appropriates, commencing with the 2012–13 fiscal year, all weight fee revenues deposited into the State Highway Account for transfer to the General Fund as reimbursement for debt service costs until all of the debt service paid on specified transportation bonds have been reimbursed or to redeem or defease bonds that are maturing in a subsequent year. This bill would require the Controller, upon notification by the Director of Finance that all debt service costs for the fiscal year have been reimbursed, to transfer any remaining revenue generated from the weight fees for that fiscal year to the General Fund as a loan. (4) Existing law requires public notice of a project under the State Contract Act to be given by publication in a newspaper or trade paper of general circulation, as specified. This bill would authorize the Department of Transportation to alternatively meet the public notice requirement through electronic publication on the department's Internet Web site. (5) This bill would require the Controller, upon order of the Director of Finance, to transfer $432,200,000 from the Motor Vehicle Account to the General Fund as a loan in the 2012–13 fiscal year, to be repaid upon order of the Director of Finance and no later than June 30, 2016. (6) The bill would make other related changes. (7) This bill would appropriate $1,000 to the California Transportation Commission from the General Fund relative to implementation of the bill. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.