Commute benefit policies: Sacramento Regional Transit District: Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District.

Existing law declares that the fostering, continuance, and development of public transportation systems are a matter of statewide concern. Existing law authorizes the formation of the Sacramento Regional Transit District with various powers and duties with respect to transportation planning, programming, construction, and operations. Existing law creates the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, which has primary responsibility for the development, implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of air pollution control strategies, clean fuels programs, and motor vehicle use reduction measures for the County of Sacramento. This bill would authorize the districts, in consultation with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, to jointly adopt, and revise as necessary to meet the region's changing transportation needs, a commute benefit ordinance that, at minimum, requires covered employers, as defined, operating within the area of the County of Sacramento that is common to the service areas of the districts to offer certain employees commute benefits, as specified, except that the bill would prohibit the ordinance from affecting employers covered by certain Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District rules or regulations. The bill would require the ordinance to specify certain matters, including consequences for noncompliance. The bill would, if the districts adopt a commute benefit ordinance, require the districts, before an unspecified date, to submit a report to the transportation policy committees of each house of the Legislature and the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality that includes specified elements. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Sacramento.