CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 2nd Ext.

Assembly Bill
No. 5

Introduced by Assembly Member Lackey
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Alanis, Chen, Megan Dahle, Davies, Dixon, Gallagher, Joe Patterson, and Ta)

September 11, 2024

An act to add Section 39719.4 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to high-speed rail.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 5, as introduced, Lackey. Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: high-speed rail expenditures: gasoline rebates.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include in its regulation of those emissions the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law continuously appropriates 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority for certain purposes.
This bill would require the Controller to transfer the sum of $3,000,000,000, from the unencumbered moneys appropriated to the authority before January 1, 2025, from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the General Fund. The bill would specify that the transferred moneys, upon appropriation, are available to provide the owner of every gasoline-powered passenger vehicle, as defined, registered in the state with a $100 rebate to offset California’s high gasoline prices.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 39719.4 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

39719.4.
 (a) Of the unencumbered balance of funds appropriated to the High-Speed Rail Authority pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 39719 before January 1, 2025, the sum of three billion dollars ($3,000,000,000) shall be transferred by the Controller to the General Fund.
(b) The funds transferred pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to provide the owner of every gasoline-powered passenger vehicle registered in the state with a one-hundred-dollar ($100) rebate to offset California’s high gasoline prices.
(c) For purposes of this section, “gasoline-powered passenger vehicle” means a passenger vehicle powered by gasoline using a conventional or hybrid internal combustion engine.