Transportation.

(1) Existing law creates the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program and, after certain allocations for the program are made, requires the remaining funds available for the program to be allocated 50% for maintenance of the state highway system or for purposes of the state highway operation and protection program and 50% for apportionment to cities and counties by the Controller pursuant to a specified formula. Before receiving an apportionment of funds under the program from the Controller in a fiscal year, existing law requires a city or county to submit to the California Transportation Commission a list of projects proposed to be funded with these funds. In order to receive an allocation or apportionment of these funds, existing law requires the city or county to annually expend a certain minimum amount from its general fund for street, road, and highway purposes. Existing law authorizes the Controller to perform audits to ensure compliance with this expenditure requirement and requires a city or county that has not complied with this expenditure requirement to reimburse the state the funds it received during the fiscal year it was not in compliance. This bill would require, for an eligible city or county that has not met its minimum expenditure requirement, as described above, the Controller to withhold from its apportionment for a fiscal year following an audit an amount up to the amount of funds that the city or county received during the fiscal year that was audited. The bill would require that the amount withheld be reallocated or reapportioned to other cities or counties who meet the minimum expenditure requirement in one annual payment, as specified, and would also require, if the amount to be apportioned is less than the amount to be withheld, that the city or county reimburse the state for the difference between the amount withheld and the apportionment that was received in the fiscal year that was audited. The bill would require, if the city or county is ineligible for an apportionment, the city or county to reimburse the state in an amount equal to the allocation or apportionment it received in the fiscal year that it was audited. The bill would authorize the Controller to adopt rules, regulations, and procedures necessary to carry out the purposes of these provisions. (2) Article XIX of the California Constitution restricts the use of excise tax revenues imposed by the state on fuels used in motor vehicles on public highways to highway and certain mass transit purposes and provides for the deposit of these fuel excise tax revenues in the Highway Users Tax Account for apportionments to cities, among other things. Existing law prohibits apportionments from the account to a city pursuant to specified provisions from being made unless the city has set up by ordinance a special gas tax street improvement fund, and requires the apportionment of those moneys to be deposited into that fund. This bill would delete the reference to those specified provisions providing for apportionments from the account, thereby prohibiting any and all apportionments from the account to a city from being made unless the city has set up by ordinance a special gas tax street fund, and thereby requiring the apportionment of those moneys to be deposited into that fund. (3) Existing law provides that, on and after January 1, 2020, provisions requiring an applicant for registration renewal to submit a form issued by the insurer as evidence that the applicant is in compliance with the financial responsibility laws of the state do not apply to vehicle owners with a residence address in the County of Los Angeles or in the City and County of San Francisco at the time of registration renewal. Existing law also provides that, on and after January 1, 2020, provisions requiring a person who drives a motor vehicle to provide evidence of financial responsibility for the vehicle upon demand of a peace officer or traffic collision investigator do not apply to a person who drives a motor vehicle upon a highway in the County of Los Angeles or in the City and County of San Francisco. This bill would repeal those provisions. (4) Existing law requires every motor vehicle subject to registration to be equipped with an adequate muffler in constant operation and properly maintained to prevent any excessive or unusual noise and prohibits a muffler or exhaust system from being equipped with a cutout, bypass, or similar device. Existing law further prohibits the modification of an exhaust system of a motor vehicle in a manner that will amplify or increase the noise emitted by the motor of the vehicle so that the vehicle exceeds existing noise limits when tested in accordance with specified standards. This bill would update the noise level testing standards described above to reflect a more recent standard. (5) Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to regulate the safe operation of certain vehicles, including, but not limited to, motortrucks of 3 or more axles that are more than 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, truck tractors, and any motortruck regulated by the DMV, the Public Utilities Commission, or the United States Secretary of Transportation. This bill would additionally require the DMV to regulate the safe operation of motortrucks regulated by the Department of Consumer Affairs, and would remove motortrucks regulated by the Public Utilities Commission from that regulation by the DMV. (6) The bill would make other technical, nonsubstantive changes.