Transportation funding: low-income communities.

Existing law establishes the state transportation improvement program process, pursuant to which the California Transportation Commission generally programs and allocates available state and federal funds for transportation capital improvement projects, other than state highway rehabilitation and repair projects, over a multiyear period based on estimates of funds expected to be available. Existing law provides funding for these interregional and regional transportation capital improvement projects through the state transportation improvement program process, with 25% of funds available for interregional projects selected by the Department of Transportation through preparation of an interregional transportation improvement program and 75% for regional projects selected by transportation planning agencies through preparation of a regional transportation improvement program. Existing law requires each transportation planning agency, on a biennial basis, to prepare and submit to the commission a regional transportation improvement program containing transportation capital projects identified for funding through the next cycle of the 5-year state transportation improvement program. This bill would require, beginning January 1, 2020, each regional transportation improvement program to allocate a minimum of 25% of available funds to projects or programs that provide direct, meaningful, and assured benefits to low-income individuals who live in certain identified communities or to riders of transit service that connects low-income residents to critical amenities and services. The bill would require the department, in consultation with residents of low-income communities and specified state agencies, to adopt guidelines for this allocation no later than January 1, 2018, to define and map low-income communities that are disadvantaged with respect to transportation, to identify communities that would benefit from the allocation requirements, and to specify criteria for determining whether certain investments benefit low-income residents of the identified communities. The bill would require the department to provide financial support, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to low-income residents of low-income communities for specified purposes generally relating to enabling their participation in the development of these guidelines and the selection of transportation projects and programs.