Board of Pilot Commissioners: surcharge.

Existing law provides for the regulation and licensing of pilots for Monterey Bay and the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun. Existing law also establishes, in the Transportation Agency, the Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun. Existing law prescribes the rates of bar pilotage fees required to be charged by pilots and paid by vessels inward and outward bound through those bays. Existing law also imposes an additional pilot boat surcharge to recover the pilots' costs of obtaining new pilot boats, including preliminary design and engineering, and of funding design and engineering modifications for the purpose of extending the service life of existing pilot boats, excluding costs for repair or maintenance, and authorizes the board to adjust the amount of the surcharge, as specified. Existing law requires the moneys charged and collected each month from the surcharge to be paid to the Board of Pilot Commissioners' Special Fund and credited to the Pilot Boat Surcharge Account, the moneys in which are continuously appropriated to the board to fund the pilot boat costs of obtaining new pilot boats and of funding design and engineering modifications for the purposes of extending the service life of existing pilot boats, excluding costs for repair or maintenance, and to cover the administrative costs of the board with respect to administration of the account. Existing law prohibits the amounts expended from the account for specified fiscal years from exceeding specified limits. This bill would remove the prohibitions on expenditures above those specified limits, thereby making an appropriation.