2005 California Government Code Sections 14556.5-14556.9 Article 2. Traffic Congestion Relief Fund

14556.5.  (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 Controller, the sum of four hundred
million dollars ($400,000,000), for allocation during the 2000-01
fiscal year to cities, counties, and cities and counties, pursuant to
Section 2182 of the Streets and Highways Code.
   (3) For allocation by the commission to the funding exchange
program authorized by Section 182.8 of the Streets and Highways Code.
   (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Department of
Finance may adjust the budgeting, accounting, and reporting system
for the fund so that unliquidated encumbrances are not reflected in
the fund balance or financial statements.
14556.6.  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.
14556.7.  (a) To provide adequate cash for projects, including, but
not limited to, projects in the State Transportation Improvement
Program, the State Highway Operation and Protection Program, and the
Traffic Congestion Relief Program, and for the support of the
department, the department may transfer funds as short-term loans
among and between the State Highway Account in the State
Transportation Fund, the Transportation Investment Fund in the State
Treasury, the Public Transportation Account in the State
Transportation Fund and the Traffic Congestion Relief Fund (TCRF),
subject to those terms and conditions that the Director of Finance
may impose upon those transfers.  When loan balances authorized in
this subdivision are outstanding, the Director of Transportation
shall report the amounts of loans outstanding with respect to each
fund or account as of the last business day of each quarter to the
commission.  The commission shall monitor the cash-flow loan program
authorized in this section and shall provide guidance to the
department to ensure that sufficient resources will be available for
all projects and all other authorized expenditures from each fund or
account so as to not delay any authorized expenditure.
   (b) For the purposes of this section, a "short-term loan" is a
transfer that is made subject to the following conditions:
   (1) That any amount loaned is to be repaid in full to the fund or
account from which it was loaned during the same fiscal year in which
the loan was made, except that repayment may be delayed until a date
not more than 30 days after the date of enactment of the budget bill
for the subsequent fiscal year.
   (2) That loans shall be repaid whenever the funds are needed to
meet cash expenditure needs in the loaning fund or account.
  (c) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2008, and, as
of January 1, 2009, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that
becomes operative on or before January 1, 2009, deletes or extends
the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
14556.75.  (a) The Director of Finance may authorize short-term
loans from the General Fund to the State Highway Account to provide
adequate cash for costs funded from that account.  Repayment of these
loans shall be the first obligation on revenues deposited into the
State Highway Account after any loan is made pursuant to this
section.
   (b) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2008, and, as
of January 1, 2009, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that is enacted before January 1, 2009, deletes or extends the dates
on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
14556.8.  (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 shall be repaid by June
30, 2008, and all loans from the State Highway Account shall be
repaid by June 30, 2007. 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 on or before June 30, 2007, 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) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2008, and, as
of January 1, 2009, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2009, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
14556.9.  (a) The department shall submit  quarter and annual
reports to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, and to the fiscal
and policy committees of the Legislature that consider transportation
issues, on all loans and transfers authorized pursuant to Sections
14556.7, 14556.75, and 14556.8 for the most recent reporting period.
The reports shall summarize amounts loaned and repaid during the
reporting period and any outstanding balances at the end of the
reporting period.  The annual report required under this section
shall be delivered to the Legislature by March 1 of each year and
shall include information on and a discussion of the impact of all
loans and transfers on project expenditures for each affected
program.  Additionally, the annual report shall include the amount of
loans outstanding as of the end of the reporting period and any
actual or projected impacts of those loan balances on funds projected
to be used for projects in the latest State Transportation
Improvement Program fund estimate required pursuant to subdivision
(a) of Section 14525.
   (b) The department shall provide the monthly finance report it
prepares for the commission to the fiscal and policy committees of
the Legislature that consider transportation issues.  The report
shall include actual cash balances, revenues, and expenditures for
the State Highway Account, the TCRF, and the Toll Bridge Seismic
Retrofit Account.
   (c) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2008, and, as
of January 1, 2009, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute that
is enacted before January 1, 2009, deletes or extends the dates on
which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.