Notwithstanding any other law, the authority may authorize a project sponsor, or the department, to impose and collect tolls as one source of revenue to pay debt service and to operate and maintain a project under the following conditions:
(a) The governing body of the project sponsor, by a majority vote of the body, or, for projects sponsored by the department, the commission, has approved the imposition of tolls on users of the project, or a majority of the voters within the jurisdiction of the project sponsor has approved a ballot measure imposing the tolls.
(b) Each highway project for which tolls are imposed shall have nontolled alternative lanes available for public use in the same corridor as the proposed toll project. Nothing in this division shall allow the conversion of any existing nontolled or non-user-fee lanes into tolled or user-fee lanes, except for the conversion of high-occupancy vehicle lanes into high-occupancy toll lanes, consistent with the authorizations in Sections 149.1, 149.4, 149.5, 149.6, and 149.7 of the Streets and Highways Code.
(c) For highway projects, the road segment is on the state highway system. Nothing in this division shall allow the imposition of a toll on any local street or road.
(d) The approval of the tolls pursuant to subdivision (a) shall require that the tolls be set and maintained at a level expected to be sufficient to pay debt service, operations, and maintenance of the project over the life of the bonds consistent with the objective set forth in Section 64105.
(e) The project’s financial pro forma shall incorporate life-cycle costs for the project, including revenues to pay for maintenance, operation, and rehabilitation.
(f) Subject to any constraints in the bond documents necessary to make the bonds marketable, excess revenues from operation of the project, including toll revenues, shall be used exclusively in the corridor from which the revenue was generated to fund acquisition, construction, improvement, maintenance, or operation of high-occupancy vehicle facilities, other transportation purposes, or transit service, including, but not limited to, support for transit operations pursuant to an expenditure plan. The project sponsor, in consultation with the department, shall issue an expenditure plan that describes transportation improvements for the corridor. This expenditure plan shall include projected costs, the use of toll revenues, and a proposed completion schedule. The expenditure plan shall be updated annually. The plan and each annual update shall be made available for public review and comment for not less than 30 days prior to adoption by the governing board of the project sponsor.
(g) Except for purposes of implementing congestion management mechanisms pursuant to Section 64113, tolls shall not be set to generate more revenue than the expected cost of paying debt service on the bonds, contracts entered into by the authority or the project sponsor in connection with the bonds, funding reserves, operating and maintaining the project, repair and rehabilitation of the project, and providing transportation improvements to the corridor pursuant to subdivision (f).
(Amended by Stats. 2013, Ch. 198, Sec. 7. (AB 1070) Effective January 1, 2014.)