Passenger rail projects: funding.

Proposition 116, an initiative measure, enacted the Clean Air and Transportation Improvement Act of 1990, which establishes the Clean Air and Transportation Improvement Fund, continuously appropriates specified amounts from the fund for, among other things, rights-of-way for rail purposes and capital expenditures deemed necessary for a specified rail service, and requires the California Transportation Commission to adopt guidelines for the approval of grants for transit projects which are essential to the implementation of safe and reliable transit services. The act authorizes, if any of the funds are not expended or encumbered prior to July 1, 2010, the Legislature to reallocate the funds for any other passenger rail project in the state by a statute passed in each house by a 23 vote. This bill would reallocate funds allocated pursuant to the act that are not expended or encumbered by July 1, 2020, to any other existing passenger rail project with existing rail service, as specified. The bill would require the commission to determine the projects pursuant to this reallocation. By reallocating unexpended or unencumbered funds to any other existing passenger rail project, the bill would make an appropriation.