Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program: loans: transit operating purposes: San Francisco Bay area.
What changed between versions
Authorizes a loan of up to $590,000,000 from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, due by July 1, 2026. The loan is limited to funding awarded to Bay Area projects that had not been fully allocated as of December 31, 2025.
MTC must use the loan proceeds to make loans to four specified transit entities: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, and Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District. Loans are restricted to public transit operating purposes (avoiding service reductions, maintaining or restoring existing service levels) and explicitly exclude capital construction costs.
Establishes a 12-year repayment schedule with quarterly installments: the first two years are interest-only, then amortized payments of principal and interest over the remaining term. The interest rate is tied to the rate earned on investments in the Surplus Money Investment Fund.
Requires MTC to pledge State Transit Assistance Program revenues as security of last resort for the loan. If a specified transit entity fails to make timely payments, MTC may redirect that entity's STA funds as repayment. The California Transportation Commission must monitor unallocated balances and if they fall below $350 million (net of outstanding loan), it must establish an allocation plan that may adjust or defer future allocations during the repayment period.
The section becomes inoperative upon full repayment of the loan as determined by the Transportation Agency in consultation with the Department of Finance. The Transportation Agency must then notify the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, and the section is repealed on January 1 following that notification.
The bill changed from a non-appropriation placeholder (vote: majority, appropriation: no, fiscal committee: no) to an immediate-effect appropriation bill related to the Budget Bill (appropriation: yes, fiscal committee: yes, state-mandated local program: yes). It now takes effect immediately under the California Constitution's budget-related appropriation provisions.