Bar pilots: pilotage rates.

Existing law provides for the regulation and licensing of pilots for Monterey Bay, and the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun, and the payment of specified pilotage rates and charges imposed on vessels piloted in those bays. Existing law also establishes, in the Transportation Agency, a Board of Pilot Commissioners for Monterey Bay and the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun, and prescribes the membership, functions, and duties of the board with regard to the licensure and regulation of bar pilots. Existing law requires that every vessel inward or outward bound from those bays pay a bar pilotage fee of $8.11 per draft foot of a vessel's deepest draft and fractions of a foot pro rata, and an additional charge of 73.01 mills per high gross registered ton. Existing law also imposes, among other things, a board operations surcharge of up to 7.5% of all bar pilotage fees charged by bar pilots, which is paid into the State Treasury to the credit of the Board of Pilot Commissioners' Special Fund and continuously appropriated to the board to compensate the board and the agency for their services and expenses. This bill would increase that bar pilotage fee to $10.26 per draft foot of a vessel's deepest draft and fractions of a foot pro rata, and the additional charge to 92.43 mills per high gross registered ton. The bill would make changes in the considerations required of the board when it is determining the number of pilots needed, and would repeal obsolete provisions and make nonsubstantive changes in the bar pilotage laws. By increasing the rates of bar pilotage fees, thereby also increasing the amount of the board operations surcharge and the amount of moneys paid into and expended from the fund, the bill would make an appropriation.