Local Transportation Authority and Improvement Act: Sacramento Transportation Authority.

Nguyen and Krell frame AB 1223 as a vehicle to empower a Sacramento Transportation Authority to raise local revenue and finance transportation infrastructure in a defined portion of Sacramento County, including projects that support infill and transit-oriented development in areas identified by local governments and included in regionally adopted plans that advance state greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives. The bill’s findings describe the authority’s aim to address local transportation needs by generating additional local revenue and explain that the normal voting thresholds for countywide sales taxes present challenges for broader measures.

The measure authorizes the Sacramento Transportation Authority to issue bonds to finance costs of high-occupancy toll lanes or other toll facilities within the county, as approved by the California Transportation Commission. Bond proceeds may be used for working capital, costs of issuance, credit enhancement, capitalized interest, reserves, and other related costs, and may be payable from toll revenues or from other funds lawfully available to the authority, including sales tax revenue, development impact fees, or state and federal grant funds. Before issuing bonds payable from toll revenue for a facility operated by CARTA, the authority must enter into an agreement with CARTA regarding toll revenue application and CARTA’s governing board must review and approve the associated toll facility expenditure plan.

The bill also establishes governance and expenditure controls: an ordinance and corresponding expenditure plan may cover a geographic area within the county that is less than the entire county, with adoption requiring a two-thirds vote of the authority’s governing board and subject to voter approval by electors in the taxed area. Revenues from the tax must be expended primarily for the portion of the county where the tax applies, and the expenditure plan must include objective eligibility guidelines defining primary benefit; revenues must supplement, rather than supplant, other transportation revenues available to that area. The authority must determine the taxed area in advance, and if the tax applies to a portion of the county, the incorporated areas must be either wholly included or wholly excluded, and the unincorporated area must be wholly included or excluded, with the area to include at least two incorporated areas or one incorporated area plus the unincorporated portion. Expenditure plans for partial areas require approval by the board of supervisors and by a majority of the city councils representing the included cities and a majority of the population within the incorporated areas subject to the tax. The bill also specifies that, except as stated, other provisions governing ordinances and expenditure plans apply to these partial-area measures, and it clarifies that the existing revenue district concept should not preclude the authority from imposing a tax in a partial area as long as all requirements are met. The act notes that it does not apply to retail transactions and use tax measures approved before a specified date.