State Transit Assistance Program.

Existing law requires the transfer of a specified portion of the sales tax on diesel fuel, in addition to various other revenues, to the Public Transportation Account, a trust fund in the State Transportation Fund. Existing law requires funds in the account to be allocated to various public transportation and transportation planning purposes, with specified revenues in the account to be allocated by the Controller to specified local transportation agencies for public transportation purposes, pursuant to the State Transit Assistance (STA) Program. Existing law requires STA funds to be allocated by formulas based 50% on population and 50% on transit operator revenues. This bill would revise and recast the provisions governing the STA program. The bill would provide that only STA-eligible operators, as defined, are eligible to receive an allocation from the portion of program funds based on transit operator revenues. The bill would provide for each STA-eligible operator within the jurisdiction of the allocating local transportation agency to receive a proportional share of the revenue-based program funds based on the qualifying revenues of that operator, as defined. The bill would revise the duties of the Controller and the Department of Transportation in administering the program. The bill would make various other conforming changes and would delete obsolete provisions. Existing law requires the Controller, relative to local transportation funds available for public transportation and other purposes in each county, to design and adopt a uniform system of accounts and records under which operators, as defined, prepare and submit annual reports of their operation. Existing law generally requires the annual report to be submitted within 90 days of the end of the fiscal year. This bill would instead require the report to be submitted within 7 months after the end of the fiscal year, and to contain underlying data from audited financial statements, as specified. The bill would also require certain information to be reported by transportation agencies with respect to eligibility for funding of STA-eligible operators under the State Transit Assistance Program. Existing law requires the Controller to calculate and publish the allocation of transit operator-based funds made pursuant to the State Transit Assistance Program for the 3rd and 4th quarters of the 2015–16 fiscal year and for all 4 quarters of the 2016–17 and 2017–18 fiscal years based on the same list of operators and the same individual operator ratios published by the Controller in a specified transmittal memo for the 4th quarter for the 2014–15 fiscal year, except as specified. This bill would only require the Controller to calculate and publish this allocation of transit operator-based funds made pursuant the State Transit Assistance Program for the 3rd and 4th quarters of the 2015–16 fiscal year and for all 4 quarters of the 2016–17 fiscal year. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.