Local Transportation Authority and Improvement Act: Sacramento Transportation Authority.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary and digest do not provide details on specific areas within Sacramento County where taxes or tolls would be collected.

Sacramento Transportation Authority Act

This act allows the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to create the Sacramento Transportation Authority (STA) and gives STA permission to collect taxes for transportation projects, issue bonds, and enter into agreements with CARTA.

What This Bill Does

• Allows the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to form a local transportation authority called the Sacramento Transportation Authority (STA).
• Gives STA the power to ask voters if they can charge a tax for transportation improvements in certain areas within the county.
• Lets STA use money from taxes and tolls to build, fix, or improve roads that support new buildings near public transit.
• Permits STA to issue bonds (borrow money) to pay for high-occupancy toll lanes or other toll facilities approved by a state commission.

Who It Names or Affects

• The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors
• Residents and businesses in areas within Sacramento County where taxes or tolls are collected

Terms To Know

Sacramento Transportation Authority (STA)

A local government group that can collect money for transportation projects in Sacramento County.

Toll lanes

Special roads where drivers pay a fee to use them, often to reduce traffic and encourage carpooling.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how much tax can be collected or what the exact spending limits are.
• It is unclear which specific areas within Sacramento County will have taxes or toll lanes.

Official Summary Text

AB 1223, Nguyen.
Local Transportation Authority and Improvement Act: Sacramento Transportation Authority.
The Local Transportation Authority and Improvement Act authorizes a county board of supervisors to create or otherwise designate a local transportation authority in the county that may impose a transactions and use tax for transportation purposes subject to voter approval and other specified requirements. Pursuant to that authority, the county board of supervisors of the County of Sacramento created the Sacramento Transportation Authority (STA).
This bill would provide that the allowable expenditure categories for revenues from a tax imposed by STA include the construction, modernization, and improvement of infrastructure, as defined, that supports infill or transit-oriented development in areas nominated by local governments, and included in regionally adopted plans that advance state greenhouse gas emissions reduction objectives, as
specified. The bill would also authorize STA to impose a transactions and use tax under the act in a geographic area that comprises less than the total area of the County of Sacramento, subject to the approval of voters within that area and other specified requirements.
Existing law authorizes regional transportation agencies and the Department of Transportation to apply to the California Transportation Commission to develop and operate high-occupancy toll lanes or other toll facilities. Under existing law, revenue generated from the operation of a toll facility under these provisions is available to the sponsoring agency for the expenses related to the toll facility and for other uses within the corridor from which the revenue is generated pursuant to an expenditure plan developed by the sponsoring agency. Existing law authorizes a regional transportation agency to issue bonds to finance construction-related expenditures for a toll facility, and
construction-related expenditures that are included in the expenditure plan, payable from the revenues generated from the toll facility. Existing law defines regional transportation agency for these purposes to mean, among other things, a joint exercise of powers authority subject to the consent of a transportation planning agency for the jurisdiction in which the transportation project will be developed. For purposes of these provisions, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, the Yolo Transportation District, and the department formed a joint powers authority, known as the Capital Area Regional Tolling Authority (CARTA), to apply to the commission to develop and operate toll facilities in the Sacramento region.
This bill would authorize STA to issue bonds to finance costs of high-occupancy toll lanes or other toll facilities within the County of Sacramento approved by the commission pursuant to the above-described provisions. The bill
would authorize those bonds to be payable from toll revenue or any other funds lawfully available to STA for those purposes, including sales tax revenue. Before STA issues bonds payable from toll revenue for a toll facility operated by CARTA, the bill would require STA to enter into an agreement with CARTA regarding the application of toll revenue to pay for bonds issued by STA and would require the governing board of CARTA to review and approve a toll facility expenditure plan.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF