Underground storage tanks: petroleum: charges.

Under the existing Barry Keene Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Trust Fund Act of 1989, every owner of an underground storage tank is required to pay a storage fee for each gallon of petroleum placed in the tank. The fees are required to be deposited in the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund and the State Water Resources Control Board is authorized to expend the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for various purposes, including the payment of claims to aid owners and operators of petroleum underground storage tanks who take corrective action to clean up unauthorized releases from those tanks, corrective actions undertaken by the board, a California regional water quality board, or a local agency, the cleanup and oversight of unauthorized releases at abandoned tank sites, and grants to small businesses to retrofit certain hazardous substance underground storage tanks. Existing law repeals the act on January 1, 2016, but specifies that certain associated rights, obligations, and authorities that apply prior to the repeal date do not terminate until the moneys in the fund are exhausted. Existing law, until January 1, 2014, provides for an increase in the fee for storage in an underground tank of $0.006 per gallon of petroleum. This bill would require payment of the additional $0.006 per gallon until January 1, 2016. The bill would extend the repeal date of the fund until January 1, 2018, and make conforming changes. The bill would require the board, no later than January 1, 2015, to make specified information relating to the payment of claims available on its Internet Web site. This bill would constitute a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.