Article 2. Traffic Congestion Relief Fund of California Government Code >> Division 3. >> Title 2. >> Part 5.3. >> Chapter 4.5. >> Article 2.
(a) The Traffic Congestion Relief Fund is hereby created
in the State Treasury. The fund shall include deposits of funds
provided in the annual Budget Act, provided from the Transportation
Investment Fund established under Section 7104 of the Revenue and
Taxation Code, or provided under any other statute. Notwithstanding
Section 13340, the money in the fund is hereby continuously
appropriated to the department, without regard to fiscal years, as
follows:
(1) For allocation by the department, as directed by the
commission pursuant to Section 14556.20, to the department and other
regional and local transportation entities for the projects listed in
Article 5 (commencing with Section 14556.40).
(2) For allocation by the commission to the funding exchange
program authorized by Section 182.8 of the Streets and Highways Code.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon order of
the Department of Finance, all or some of the state agencies
collecting revenue for, or spending from, the Traffic Congestion
Relief Fund shall adjust budgeting, accounting, and reporting systems
and documents so that unliquidated encumbrances, payables, and other
accruals are not reflected in the fund balance in the Governor's
Budget fund condition display or the fund balance in the financial
statements submitted to the Controller for the Budgetary/Legal Basis
Annual Report.
(2) For the purposes of the Governor's Budget, the balance of cash
advanced from the Traffic Congestion Relief Fund to the
Transportation Revolving Account, as jointly determined by the
Department of Finance and the state agencies referenced in paragraph
(1), shall be deemed as resources and cash available to the Traffic
Congestion Relief Fund for budgeting purposes.
(3) This method shall be effective with the 2013-14 Governor's
Budget development process and may be applied to the 2011-12 data.
The purpose of this article is to relieve traffic
congestion, provide additional funding for local street and road
deferred maintenance, and provide additional transportation capacity
in high growth areas of the state. The Traffic Congestion Relief Fund
is intended to contribute five billion three hundred thirteen
million nine hundred thousand dollars ($5,313,900,000), above the
traditional transportation funding provided by the state, towards the
funding of projects listed in Article 5 (commencing with Section
14556.40) and the deferred maintenance program authorized in Section
2182 of the Streets and Highways Code. This funding commitment is
intended to be combined with other state, local, federal, and private
funds to complete and operate the transportation improvements
identified in Article 5 (commencing with Section 14556.40). Funds
needed to meet the contribution commitment described in this section
are intended to be provided as follows:
(a) The sum of one billion five hundred million dollars
($1,500,000,000) from the General Fund, as appropriated by Section 20
of Chapter 91 of the Statutes of 2000, to the fund.
(b) The sum of five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) from
the transfer of the sales and use tax on motor vehicle fuel during
the 2000-01 fiscal year, as required under Section 7102 of the
Revenue and Taxation Code, as amended by Section 10 of Chapter 91 of
the Statutes of 2000.
(c) The sum of six hundred seventy-eight million dollars
($678,000,000) is intended to be provided in each of four successive
fiscal years, commencing with the 2003-04 fiscal year, plus the sum
of six hundred one million nine hundred thousand dollars
($601,900,000) in the 2007-08 fiscal year, from the Transportation
Investment Fund.
(a) (1) To the extent necessary to provide adequate cash
to fund projected expenditures under this chapter, the Director of
Finance may authorize, by executive order, the transfer of not more
than one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000), as an interest free
loan, from the Motor Vehicle Account in the State Transportation Fund
to the TCRF, and the transfer of any available funds, as an interest
free loan, from the General Fund to the TCRF. Loans from the Motor
Vehicle Account may be made no sooner than July 1, 2004, and shall be
repaid no later than July 1, 2007. The Director of Finance shall not
authorize a loan from the Motor Vehicle Account, and shall promptly
require the repayment of any outstanding balance owed to that
account, if the funds are needed in the account to make expenditures
authorized in the annual Budget Act and by any other appropriations
made by the Legislature.
(2) To provide cash needed for expenditures on projects listed in
Section 14556.40, the Legislature may authorize loans from the Public
Transportation Account or the State Highway Account to the TCRF
through the annual Budget Act. The Legislature may also authorize the
State Highway Account to expend funds on behalf of projects listed
in Section 14556.40 and those expenditures shall constitute a loan to
the TCRF. Loans from the Public Transportation Account shall not
exceed a cumulative total of two hundred eighty million dollars
($280,000,000), and loans from the State Highway Account shall not
exceed a cumulative total of six hundred fifty-four million dollars
($654,000,000).
(b) The Director of Finance shall order the repayment of the loans
authorized under this section under those terms and conditions that
the director deems appropriate, upon determining that there are
adequate funds available for that purpose in the TCRF and that
repayment will not jeopardize the availability of money needed to
fund approved and projected expenditures under this chapter. All
loans from the Public Transportation Account and the State Highway
Account shall be repaid at the time the TCRF is repaid pursuant to
paragraph (2) of subdivision (c). Upon the request of the commission
or the Director of Finance, the department shall provide a report,
for purposes of this subdivision, projecting the cash needs of the
projects approved under this chapter.
(c) (1) Money in the TCRF derived from the General Fund and not
currently needed for expenditures on the projects listed in Section
14556.40 may be loaned to the General Fund through the annual Budget
Act.
(2) Upon making a determination that funds in the TCRF are not
adequate to support expected cash expenditures for the listed
projects, the Director of Finance, by executive order, shall require
that funds loaned to the General Fund under paragraph (1) be repaid
to the TCRF. All these loans shall be repaid upon the sale of bonds
authorized by Article 6.5 (commencing with Section 63048.6) of
Chapter 2 of Division 1 of Title 6.7. If the proceeds from those
bonds are insufficient to repay the funds loaned to the General Fund
under paragraph (1), the remaining amount of those loans shall be
repaid from future tribal gaming revenues, additional securitizations
against those revenues, or from the General Fund.
(3) Interest at the rate earned by the Surplus Money Investment
Fund shall be paid to the TCRF from the General Fund with respect to
the cumulative amount loaned from the State Highway Account to the
TCRF pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) that is in excess
of one hundred eighty million dollars ($180,000,000). The amount of
this interest obligation shall be calculated annually on the balance
of this portion of this outstanding loan amount. All interest on the
loan shall be paid in full at the time the TCRF is repaid pursuant to
paragraph (2), and the interest payment shall be transferred from
the TCRF to the State Highway Account.
(d) Funds loaned to the TCRF under this section shall be used for
purposes consistent with any restrictions on uses of those funds
imposed under the California Constitution or by statute. The
department shall identify specific projects to which those funds may
properly be applied and shall propose that application of funds to
the commission. The commission shall designate projects to receive
those funds through the processes described in Article 3 (commencing
with Section 14556.10) and Article 4 (commencing with Section
14556.25). The department shall report periodically to the commission
and the Department of Finance on the expenditure of those funds.
(e) As long as loan balances authorized by this section are
outstanding, the Director of Transportation shall report to the
commission the amounts of loans outstanding with respect to each fund
or account as of the last business day of each quarter.
(f) This section shall become inoperative upon full repayment of
loans authorized by this section, and shall be repealed on January 1
of the following year.