Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority: billing requirement.

Existing law creates the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority with certain powers and duties relative to transportation planning and programming, and the operation of transit service. Existing law provides that the authority is the successor agency to the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law creates the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District. Where the BART District purchases electricity at more than one location, at any voltage, from an electric utility under tariffs fixed by the commission, existing law requires that the utility bill the BART District for usage as though all the electricity purchased at transmission level voltages were metered by a single meter at one location and all the electricity purchased at subtransmission voltages were metered by a single meter at one location, provided that any billing for demand charges be based on the coincident demand of transmission and distribution metering. This bill would adopt electricity billing requirements applicable to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority that are similar to the above-described requirements applicable to BART, but would also impose those requirements applicable to an electrical corporation in the BART statute on a local publicly owned electric utility. The bill would declare that, due to the special circumstances applicable only to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a general statute cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution, and the enactment of a special statute is therefore necessary. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing the bill's requirements with respect to an electrical corporation would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.