Under the existing Barry Keene Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Trust Fund Act of 1989, which is repealed on January 1, 2016, every owner of an underground storage tank is required to pay a storage fee for each gallon of petroleum placed in the tank. The fees are required to be deposited in the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund and the board is authorized to expend the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for various purposes, including the payment of claims to aid owners and operators of petroleum underground storage tanks who take corrective action to clean up unauthorized releases from those tanks, corrective actions undertaken by the board, a California regional water quality control board, or a local agency, the cleanup and oversight of unauthorized releases at abandoned tank sites, and grants to small businesses to retrofit certain hazardous substance underground storage tanks.

Existing law provides for an increase in the fee at a rate of $0.006 per gallon of petroleum between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2011, and terminates that increase on January 1, 2012.

This bill would continue the requirement to pay that increased amount of $0.006 per gallon until January 1, 2014. By operation of existing law, the revenue resulting from the increased fee would be required to be deposited in the fund and be available, upon appropriation, for expenditure for the purposes authorized under existing law for money in the fund. This bill would constitute a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIII?A of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.

The bill would only become operative if AB 358 is enacted and becomes effective on or before January 1, 2012.