Transportation

California Road Repair Act Won’t Go to Voters in 2014

Transportation California and the California Alliance for jobs have decided not to move forward with the California Road Repair Act on the November 2014 ballot. As counties recall, at full implementation the Act would have generated approximately $750 million a year in revenues for repairing and maintaining county roads. In making their decision, the proponents citied issues such as the prolonged economic downtown and its continued effects on California’s voters, as well as the recent passage of temporary income and sales tax increase via Proposition 30 in 2012. Essentially, the measure’s authors determined that now was not an opportune time to ask voters to “dig deeper into their pockets.”

Transportation California and the California Alliance for Jobs are committed to continuing the conversation about how to generate additional funding for transportation in the short-term, such as returning the approximately $950 million in annual vehicle weight fee revenues, which are currently diverted to pay for transportation bond debt service, back to the State Highway Account. Counties would likely receive 22% of the annual vehicle weight fee revenues, approximately $209 million, via the 2010 Fuel Tax Swap. CSAC also remains committed to pursuing additional much-needed transportation infrastructure funding. For our part, we will continue the discussion at upcoming County Engineer and CSAC conferences and with the Legislature, Administration, and transportation stakeholders in the coming months of the 2014 legislative session.

Tribal Intergovernmental Affairs

SB 406 (Evans) – Request for Comment
As amended January 6, 2014

SB 406, by Senator Noreen Evans, would exempt Indian tribal judgments from the Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act and would instead enact the Tribal Court Civil Judgment Act in its place. The new act would provide for the enforceability of tribal court judgments in California, but it would expand the range of judgments that may be enforced to include all civil tribal judgments, except as specified. The act would prescribe the procedure for applying for recognition and entry of a judgment based on a tribal court judgment, the procedure and grounds for objecting to the entry of judgment, and the bases upon which the court may refuse to enter the judgment or grant a stay of enforcement. The bill would further require the Judicial Council to prescribe a form for the notice of filing the application for recognition of the tribal court judgment.

CSAC does not have a position on this measure at this time, but we had previously posed questions and identified issues warranting further consideration in correspondence to the Judicial Council in 2011. CSAC is interested in comments as to how this proposed law would affect counties.

The bill was passed by the Senate and is awaiting referral to policy committee in the Assembly.