Existing federal law regulates aviation safety and airspace efficiency for manned and unmanned aircraft. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to impede police officers, firefighters, emergency medical, or other emergency personnel or military personnel in the performance of their duties by operating an unmanned aerial vehicle at the scene of an emergency. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to use an unmanned aircraft system to invade a person's privacy, as specified. Existing law prohibits operating an unmanned aircraft system on or above the grounds of a state prison, jail, or juvenile hall, as specified. This bill would prohibit the operation of an unmanned aircraft within 400 feet of an outdoor ticketed entertainment event or an amusement park, except under specified circumstances. The bill would make a violation of this prohibition an infraction punishable by a fine of $500. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law authorizes airports to require rental companies to collect a customer facility charge or an alternative customer facility charge for purposes that include financing, designing, and constructing airport vehicle rental facilities and common-use transportation systems. Existing law requires the aggregate amount of charges collected to not exceed, among other things, the reasonable costs to finance, design, and construct those facilities. Existing law authorizes a rental company to collect a customer facility charge under specified circumstances, including that revenues collected from the fee do not exceed the reasonable costs of financing, designing, and constructing the facility. Existing law authorizes an airport to require rental companies to collect an alternative customer facility charge under specified conditions, including that the airport finds that the reasonable cost of the project requires the additional amount of revenue that would be generated by the proposed daily rate, and prohibits the daily rate of the alternative customer facility charge from exceeding $9 per day. Existing law limits use of proceeds of any bonds backed by alternative customer facility charges to construction and design of the consolidated rental vehicle facility, terminal modifications, and operating costs of the common-use transportation system. This bill would require that the aggregate amount of charges collected also not exceed the reasonable costs of performance of major maintenance on airport vehicle rental facilities, as provided. The bill would increase the daily maximum alternative customer facility charge an airport is authorized to require rental companies to collect to $12 per day. The bill would also authorize proceeds of any bonds backed by, or revenues from, alternative customer facility charges to be used for major maintenance of a consolidated rental vehicle facility and would remove the authorization for the proceeds of those bonds to be used for terminal modifications.
The State Aeronautics Act establishes the Aeronautics Account in the State Transportation Fund, and continuously appropriates the moneys in the account for expenditure for airport purposes by the Division of Aeronautics within the Department of Transportation and the California Transportation Commission. Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, including taxes imposed on the sale, storage, use, or other consumption of jet fuels. Existing law requires revenues from these taxes to be transmitted to the Treasurer and deposited into the Retail Sales Tax Fund. Existing federal law requires that any revenue from sales and use taxes imposed on aviation fuel be used for the operation costs of airports, the local airport system, or other local facilities that are directly and substantially related to the air transportation of passengers or property, except as provided. This bill would require the Controller, on or before September 1 of each year, to transfer an amount calculated to represent the sales and use tax revenues derived with respect to the sale, storage, use, or other consumption of jet fuel, as provided, from the Retail Sales Tax Fund to the account for allocation to airports and aviation-related purposes, as provided. The bill would require all public and private use airports where jet fuel is sold or consumed to report fuel flowage statistics to the Division of Aeronautics, as provided, and would require the division to determine the revenue allocation for each airport that reports fuel flowage statistics. By adding new reporting requirements for county-owned and city-owned airports, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. From the above-described sales and use tax revenues deposited into the account, this bill would require the division, after deducting its administrative costs, as provided, to allocate 75% of those revenues to public and private use airports based on their reported fuel flowage statistics, as provided, 15% of those revenues for general aviation airports, as provided, 1% to award grants for aviation education, as provided, and 9% for existing grant programs that serve nonhub and small hub airports. From the above-described 75% of revenues deposited into the account, the bill would apportion, until January 1, 2032, $500,000 annually to award grants to rural, nonhub commercial airports and general aviation airports, as provided. By increasing the sources of funding for and expanding the purposes for which money may be used from a continuously appropriated fund, the Aeronautics Account, this bill would make an appropriation. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA authorizes the Governor to certify projects meeting certain requirements as infrastructure projects and provide those certified projects with certain streamlining benefits, including requiring the lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings concurrently with the environmental review process and requiring the resolution of an action or proceeding challenging the certification of an EIR for certified projects or the granting of any project approvals, to the extent feasible, within 270 days of the filing of the record of proceedings with the court, as specified. Existing law requires the lead agency, within 10 days of the certification of an infrastructure project, to provide a public notice of the certification, as provided. If a lead agency fails to approve a project certified as an infrastructure project before January 1, 2033, existing law specifies that the certification is no longer valid. This bill would authorize the Governor to certify up to 3 sustainable aviation fuel projects, as defined, meeting certain requirements, as infrastructure projects, thereby providing the above streamlining benefits to those projects. By expanding the duties of a lead agency as they relate to infrastructure projects and to sustainable aviation fuel projects, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law, the State Aeronautics Act, governs various matters relative to aviation in the state, and authorizes the Department of Transportation to adopt, administer, and enforce rules and regulations for the administration of the act. This bill, the Advanced Air Mobility Infrastructure Act, would require the department, in coordination with specified agencies, to include advanced air mobility, as defined, in the next update to the California Transportation Plan prepared after January 1, 2027, and to establish a statewide working group to facilitate ongoing collaboration to explore California's role as a leader in the development and implementation of advanced air mobility, as specified. The bill would prohibit its provisions from being construed to (1) interfere with or suspend the authority of the Federal Aviation Administration or any other federal department or agency, or state zoning laws or regulations, as specified, or (2) limit or interfere with the jurisdiction, authority, rights, or responsibilities of any airport sponsor or operator, as specified.
