Transportation.

(1) Under the Mills-Alquist-Deddeh Act, also known as the Transportation Development Act, revenues from a 1 / 4 % sales tax in each county are transferred to the county's local transportation fund and available, among other things, for allocation by a transportation planning agency to transit operators, subject to certain financial requirements for an operator to meet in order to be eligible to receive funds. Existing law sets forth alternative ways for an operator to qualify for funding, including a standard under which the allocated funds do not exceed 50% of the operator's total operating costs, as specified, or the maintenance by the operator of a specified ratio of fare revenues to operating cost. If an operator was allocated funds from a local transportation fund during a fiscal year in which it did not maintain the required ratio of fare revenues to operating cost, existing law requires the operator's eligibility to receive these moneys and specified allocations under the State Transit Assistance Program to be reduced during a subsequent penalty year by the amount of the difference between the required fare revenues and the actual fare revenues collected for the fiscal year that the required ratio was not maintained. This bill would prohibit the imposition of this penalty on an operator that does not maintain the required ratio of fare revenues to operating cost during the 2019–20 or 2020–21 fiscal year. (2) 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 for 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 Program. Existing law continuously appropriates a specified portion of the revenues attributable to the sales tax on diesel fuel and various other revenues to the Controller for allocation to each local transportation agency by formulas based 50% on population and 50% on transit operator revenues. Existing law requires each State Transit Assistance-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 require the Controller to calculate and publish the allocation of transit operator revenue-based funds made pursuant to the State Transit Assistance Program for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 fiscal years based on the same individual operator ratios published by the Controller in a specified transmittal memo, and would authorize the Controller to revise that transmittal memo, as specified. The bill would require the Controller to use specified data to calculate those individual operator ratios. Upon allocation of the transit operator revenue-based funds to local transportation agencies pursuant to this provision, the bill would require the Controller to publish the amount of funding allocated to each operator. (3) Existing law requires an operator to receive its entire allocation under the State Transit Assistance Program, and authorizes the operator to use any or all of that allocation for operating purposes, if it meets one of 2 specified efficiency standards. If the operator fails to meet either of those efficiency standards, existing law reduces the amount of the operator's allocation available for operating purposes by a specified percentage and requires that amount to be used by the operator for capital purposes. This bill would exempt an operator from meeting either of those efficiency standards for the 2020–21 and 2021–2022 fiscal years and would authorize the operator to use those funds for operating or capital purposes during that period. (4) Existing law imposes a transportation improvement fee under the Vehicle License Fee Law and requires a portion of the revenues attributable to the fee to be transferred to the Public Transportation Account for the State Transit Assistance Program. Existing law continuously appropriates those funds to the Controller under a program commonly known as the State of Good Repair Program for allocation pursuant to the population-based and transit operator revenue-based formulas. This bill would require the Controller to allocate program funding for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 fiscal years to recipient transit agencies pursuant to the individual operator ratios published in the above-described transmittal memo. (5) Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the State Air Resources Board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law continuously appropriates specified portions of the annual proceeds in the fund to various programs, including 5% for the Low Carbon Transit Operations Program, which provides operating and capital assistance for transit agencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve mobility. Existing law requires the Controller to allocate available program funding to recipient transit agencies on a formula basis, upon approval of the recipient transit agency's proposed expenditures by the Department of Transportation. This bill would require the Controller to allocate Low Carbon Transit Operations Program funding for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 fiscal years to recipient transit agencies pursuant to the individual operator ratios published in the above-described transmittal memo. (6) Existing sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. Existing law requires a seller or person subject to sales and use tax to file, on or before the last day of the month following each quarterly period, a return for the preceding quarterly period. Existing law provides that if the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (the department) finds that a person's failure to make a timely return or payment is due to reasonable cause and circumstances beyond the person's control, and occurred notwithstanding the exercise of ordinary care and the absence of willful neglect, the person shall be relieved of the penalties for failing to file a return. This bill, beginning January 1, 2020, would require an aircraft jet fuel retailer to provide a quarterly information return, as specified, and would subject a retailer who fails to file that information return or who files an inaccurate information return to a penalty of $5,000. The bill would exempt from those penalties a person who files an inaccurate return if that person's failure is due to reasonable cause and circumstances beyond the person's control, notwithstanding the exercise of ordinary care and the absence of willful neglect. The bill would require the department to post specified information from the returns on its internet website, including the amount of reported revenue derived from the sale, storage, use, or consumption of aircraft jet fuel in the state from specified taxes. (7) Existing law creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement an intercity high-speed rail system in the state, with specified powers and duties. Existing law requires the authority to prepare, publish, adopt, and submit to the Legislature a business plan containing specified elements, by May 1, 2014, and every 2 years thereafter, with a draft of the business plan to be available at least 60 days in advance for public review and comment, followed by at least one public hearing. Existing law requires the authority, on or before March 1, 2017, and every 2 years thereafter, to provide a project update report to the Legislature on the development and implementation of intercity high-speed train service, as specified. This bill would delay the due date of the 2020 business plan to December 15, 2020. After the authority publishes the draft of the business plan, the bill would require the authority to submit any update to the draft business plan to a specified peer review group for review before the authority adopts the business plan. The bill would specify that the 2021 project update report is not required. (8) This bill would appropriate $1,705,000 to the Department of Motor Vehicles from the Air Pollution Control Fund to develop the interface system for the department's vehicle registration system to communicate with the State Air Resources Board's compliance database. (9) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.