Transit Pass Program: free or reduced-fare transit passes.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Each of these segments is authorized to provide instruction and other services to the students who attend the institutions under their respective jurisdictions. Existing law also authorizes the governing board of a school district to provide for the transportation of pupils to and from school whenever in the judgment of the board the transportation is advisable and good reasons exist to do so. This bill would establish the Transit Pass Program to be administered by the Department of Transportation with moneys made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to support transit pass programs that provide free or reduced-fare transit passes to specified pupils and students. The bill would require the department to develop guidelines that describe the criteria that eligible transit providers are required to use to make available free or reduced-fare transit passes to eligible participants. The bill would exempt those guidelines from the Administrative Procedure Act. The bill would require eligible transit providers and eligible participants to enter into agreements for the distribution of free or reduced-fare transit passes to students. This bill would require that the guidelines ensure that moneys from the program are used to expand eligibility or further reduce the cost of a transit pass under existing programs. The bill would require the department to develop performance measures and reporting requirements to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, including an annual update of the number of free or reduced-fare transit passes distributed to pupils and students and whether the program is increasing transit ridership among pupils and students. The bill would set a minimum allocation of $20,000 for each eligible transit provider and would provide for the distribution and allocation of remaining Transit Pass Program moneys by formula to eligible transit providers. The bill would require, for purposes of determining an eligible transit provider's eligibility for moneys distributed to a transportation planning agency from the Public Transportation Account, that free or discounted transit fare passes be calculated at their full retail value.