Social Service Transportation Improvement Act: coordinated transportation services agencies.

(1) The Social Service Transportation Improvement Act requires transportation planning agencies and county transportation commissions to prepare and adopt plans detailing required steps to consolidate social service transportation services, including the designation of consolidated transportation service agencies. The act requires funding for implementation to be provided from specified local transportation funds. This bill would require the coordination, rather than the consolidation, of social service transportation services under the act and would recharacterize consolidated transportation service agencies in the act as coordinated transportation service agencies. This bill would authorize a coordinated transportation service agency to review and comment on specified plans and projects relevant to its jurisdiction, and would require specified agencies to respond to the comments. By increasing service requirements for counties, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law annually imposes a transportation improvement fee on each vehicle based on its market value. Existing law requires the deposit of these revenues into specified accounts, one of which is the Public Transportation Account. The California Constitution requires that all of these revenues be used solely for specified transportation purposes. This bill would increase the transportation improvement fee by $10 per vehicle, and would require the revenues generated to be deposited into the Public Transportation Account. The bill would continuously appropriate this fee revenue for allocation, as specified, to counties for accessible transportation services for seniors and disabled persons. (3) This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. 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.