Sierra Madre Municipal Code Ch. 10.48 Vehicle Registration Fees—air Quality Improvement

The city finds and declares that:

A. The city is committed to improving the public heath, safety and welfare, including air quality, and expresses support for the imposition of motor vehicle registration fees to be used to reduce pollution from such motor vehicles pursuant to the Clean Air Act of 1988 or any applicable state plan therefor;

B. Mobile sources are a major source and a major contributor to air pollution in the South Coast Air Basin;

C. Air quality goals for the region established by state law cannot be met without reducing air pollution from mobile sources;

D. The South Coast Air Quality Management Plan (SCAQMP) calls upon cities and counties to reduce emissions from motor vehicles consistent with the requirements of the California Clean Air Act of 1988 by developing and implementing mobile source air pollution reduction programs;

E. Since such programs place demands upon the city's funds, those programs should be financed by shifting the responsibility for financing from the general fund to the motor vehicles creating the demand, to the greatest extent possible;

F. Section 44223, added to the Health and Safety Code by action of the California Legislature on September 30, 1990, authorizes the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) to impose an additional motor vehicle registration fee of two dollars, commencing on April 1, 1991, increasing to four dollars, commencing on April 1, 1992, to finance the implementation of transportation measures embodied in the SCAQMP and provisions of the California Clean Air Act;

G. Forty cents of every dollar collected under Section 44223 of the Health and Safety Code shall be distributed to cities and counties located in the South Coast Air Quality Management District that comply with Section 44243 of the code, based on the city's prorated share of population as defined by the State Department of Finance;

H. The city is located within the South Coast Air Quality Management District and is eligible to receive a portion of the revenues from the additional motor vehicle registration fees contingent upon adoption of the ordinance codified in this chapter;

I. The prorated share of the fee revenues for cities that fail to adopt an ordinance pursuant to Section 44243(b)(3) of the Health and Safety Code shall be distributed instead to the jurisdictions within the District that have adopted an ordinance.

(Ord. 1077 § 1, 1991)

For the purpose of this chapter the following words and terms shall be defined as follows:

"City" means the city of Sierra Madre.

"Fee administrator" means the finance director of the city or his/her designee.

"Mobile source air pollution reduction programs" means any program or project implemented by the city to reduce air pollution from motor vehicles which it determines will be consistent with the California Clean Air Act of 1988 or the plan proposed pursuant to Article 5 (commencing with Section 40460) of Chapter 5.5 of Part 3 of the California Health and Safety Code.

(Ord. 1077 § 2 (part), 1991)

A. Receipt of Fee. The additional vehicle registration fee disbursed by the SCAQMD and remitted to the city, for purposes of reduction of air pollution pursuant to Health and Safety Code Section 44243, shall be accepted by the fee administrator.

B. Establishment of Air Quality Improvement Trust Fund. The fee administrator shall establish a separate quality improvement restricted fund into which all fee revenues distributed to the city shall be deposited, and out of which expenditures shall be made to reduce air pollution in accordance with California Health and Safety Code Section 44243.

C. Transfer of Funds. Upon receipt of the funds described in subsection A of this section, the fee administrator shall deposit such funds into a separate fund established pursuant to subsection B of this section. All interest earned by the trust fund shall be credited only to that fund.

D. Expenditure of Air Quality Trust Fund Revenues. All revenues received from the SCAQMD and deposited in the restricted fund shall be exclusively expended on mobile source air pollution reduction programs. Such revenues, and any interest earned on the revenues, shall be expended within one year of the completion of the program.

(Ord. 1077 § 2 (part), 1991)