Legislative record

Airports: financial assistance.

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.