2640 State Transit Assistance
Major Program Changes
  • Proposition 1B Funds - In November 2006, voters passed Proposition 1B, which provided $19.9 billion in bond funds for transportation infrastructure in California. Of this amount, $3.6 billion is for commuter or urban rail operators, bus operators, waterborne transit operators, and other transit operators in California for rehabilitation, safety or modernization improvements, capital service enhancements or expansions, new capital projects, bus rapid transit improvements, or for rolling stock procurement, rehabilitation, or replacement. The Governor's Budget includes $1.3 billion in bond funds to be distributed over the next three years to local transit agencies, including $600 million in 2007-08. Budget trailer legislation provides that each agency's share of funds, as determined by the bond act formula, will be disbursed as qualified projects are approved by the California Transportation Commission.

  • Allocation of "Spillover" Funds - Existing law provides that in many years, sales tax revenues on gasoline that exceed the amount that one-quarter cent of sales tax on other purchases produces are deemed "spillover" revenues and are deposited in the Public Transportation Account. Current law also provides that one-half of those revenues are distributed to transit agencies for operations. These laws have often been changed for periods of time to allocate these revenues differently. The Governor's Budget proposes to continue the flow of these revenues into the PTA for 2007-08, except for $340 million needed to offset transportation bond debt service. Additionally, the Budget proposes to permanently discontinue allocating spillover revenue to the State Transit Assistance program. This and other actions proposed in the budget frees up sufficient funding capacity to fund Home-to-School Transportation and Regional Center Transportation.

  • 2006-07 Spillover - The 2006-07 Budget Act and current statute are in conflict with regard to how much funding should be allocated for transit assistance. The revenues from spillover in the current year are now anticipated to be more than $100 million less than was forecast for 2006-07, but the Budget Act level, based on the higher estimates, has been interpreted as superceding the statute. Because this effectively allocates more than the revenues will support, the Governor's Budget proposes to correct for this over-allocation by reducing the state transit assistance share of sales tax revenues in 2007-08 by the extra amount it received in 2006-07.