Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program: loans: transit operating purposes: San Francisco Bay area.

Existing law establishes the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, which is funded in part by a continuously appropriated allocation of a specified portion of the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, to fund transformative capital improvements that will modernize California's intercity, commuter, and urban rail systems and bus and ferry transit systems to achieve certain policy objectives. Existing law requires the Transportation Agency to evaluate applications for funding under the program and to approve a multiyear program of projects, as specified, and requires the California Transportation Commission to allocate funding to applicants pursuant to the program of projects approved by the agency. Existing law creates the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a local area planning agency for the 9-county San Francisco Bay area with comprehensive regional transportation planning and other related responsibilities. Existing law creates various transit districts located in the San Francisco Bay area, including the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District and the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, with specified powers and duties relating to providing public transit services. This bill would require, on or before July 1, 2026, the Transportation Agency, subject to various requirements, to loan to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission up to $590,000,000 of funding approved under the program for projects within the San Francisco Bay area. The bill would require the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to use the proceeds of that loan to offer loans, subject to certain conditions, for public transit operating purposes to the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, and the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District. By changing the purpose for which continuously appropriated funds may be expended, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require the California Transportation Commission, if certain conditions are met, to establish an allocation plan for the awarded projects in the San Francisco Bay area under which future allocations under the program to those projects may be adjusted or deferred during the repayment period of the loan made to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, as specified. The bill would require a transit operator to use its respective share of specified funding under the State Transit Assistance Program as security for any loan made by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and would authorize the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to redirect those funds as repayment for an outstanding loan if the specified transit entity fails to make timely loan payments. The bill would make these provisions inoperative upon full repayment of the loan by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, as specified. To the extent the bill would impose new duties on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.