Local agencies: airports: alternative customer facility charges.

Assembly Member Schultz's airport facility charge legislation modifies how California airports can collect and utilize rental car customer fees, adjusting maximum daily rates and expanding permitted maintenance activities. The measure amends existing law governing customer facility charges that airports require rental companies to collect for financing and maintaining consolidated rental facilities and transportation systems.

The bill increases the maximum alternative customer facility charge from $9 to $12 per day starting January 1, 2026, while maintaining the five-day collection limit per rental contract. Airports can now use these fees and associated bond proceeds for major maintenance of consolidated rental vehicle facilities, though the previous authorization for terminal modifications has been removed. The aggregate amount collected must not exceed the reasonable costs of financing, designing, constructing and maintaining these facilities, as determined through mandatory independent audits.

For airports implementing alternative facility charges, the legislation preserves existing transparency requirements including public hearings under the Ralph M. Brown Act, annual online reporting of collected amounts and expenditures, and triennial independent audits for transportation system operations. Rental companies remain restricted from collecting multiple facility charges from a single customer for the same rental. The fees continue to be exempt from sales, use and transaction taxes under state law.