[Update from LBReport.com: The Assembly today voted 42-26 to add a number of amendments to SB 974...none of which were visible online to the public. None of the amendments have been discussed publicly by the LB City Council...which voted in March 2007 to endorse the bill (without any conditions). SB 974 could come up for an Assembly floor vote, as amended, as early as Tuesday. The amended bill may be online by Tuesday morning...when it's due for the vote.]

(July 14, 2008, updated text) -- State Sen. Alan Lowenthal is adding over 150 amendments to his proposed SB974 legislation that seeks to impose a $30-per-TEU container fee on cargo moving through the three largest California ports, American Shipper has learned.

While most of the amendments are minor clarifications or technical changes to the bill's original language, over a dozen of the amendments deal with which Southern California goods movement infrastructure projects will be eligible for funds collected if the bill becomes law. Several of the new amendments also alter how the 50 percent of the SB974 collected funds designated for air quality programs will be spent.

In addition, Lowenthal has asked for a procedural rules waiver on the bill, meaning that the bill could be brought to an Assembly vote as early as Tuesday. Sacramento Assembly watchers expect the waiver to be granted.

The bill currently requires only a full Assembly vote and a concurrence vote by the Senate to pass the Legislature and head to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office. It is not expected to encounter any difficulty in passing either house. The Governor, while opposing Lowenthal's bill in the past, indicated earlier this year that he is now supportive of such a statewide fee. Schwarzenegger is expected to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

The two new amendments likely to raise the most interest are a declaration that no exemptions to the fee will be granted -- as the Port of Oakland had sought in the case the Bay Area port authority imposed its own local container tax -- and an amendment allowing Southern California project planners to substitute "similar" projects for those specified in the bill.

Lowenthal officially added all the amendments to the bill Monday. Earlier this week, Lowenthal presented the amendments to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for review.

The SB974 bill -- which would impose the per-TEU fee on containers moving through the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Oakland -- s projected to raise between $400 million and $500 million annually for goods movement infrastructure and environmental projects throughout the state. Under the terms of the bill, the per-TEU container fee would be borne by beneficial cargo owners...

The infrastructure projects to be funded under SB974, according to the amendments, include: dozens of rail/traffic separation projects in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties; the Colton Crossing rail project, unspecified on-dock rail projects at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles; and a project for electric/maglev/zero emission rail.

A new amendment also provides that the Southern California group putting together the list of projects eligible for the collected fee -- composed of representatives from the ports and cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, the LA County MTA, the Riverside County Transportation Commission, the Orange County Transportation Authority, San Bernardino Associated Governments, and the cities of Anaheim, Riverside, and San Bernardino -- to substitute a "similar" project for one listed in the bill.

Funding priority, under another key amendments, is now specified as going to those projects that are closest to construction....

For further see: AmericanShipper.com California/Pacific Connection