CAPCOA which is an Association of Air Pollution Control Officers representing all thirty-five local air quality agencies throughout California,tells us that a program related to the Lower Emission School Bus Program (LESBP) and Senate Bill 1018, signed into law in June 2012. Under LESBP, most recently funded through Proposition 1B bonds, air districts had until June 30, 2012 to fully expend $191 million in funding for replacement of older school buses or filter retrofits to newer school buses. Alan Abbs Informs us in the CAPCOA Newsletter that, Complicating the program for some air Districts and school districts was a requirement for matching funds of $25,000 per bus to replace an old bus, during a time when many schools were already dealing with reduced transportation budgets and overall school funding. While some Air Districts were able to assist with the matching fund requirement through their locally collected AB 923 Funding, other districts didn't have access to AB 923 Funds or could not find eligible projects within their jurisdiction. Those things, plus accrued interest on unspent funds left most air districts with money remaining unspent on June 30, totaling approximately $3 million. SB 1018 provided a mechanism for Air Districts and ARB to make one last effort to identify eligible projects in their jurisdiction, and then to arrange a transfer of unspent funds from air districts with unspent funds to air districts that had eligible projects and could use those unspent funds. The time line to accomplish this was short however, with a deadline for ARB to submit a report by September 30 identifying new eligible projects and potential transfers, and then a deadline of December 31 for air districts to complete the necessary forms and get permissions from their respective boards. With help from the staff of ARB, San Joaquin Valley Unified APCD, and Sacramento Metro AQMD, we identified almost $2 million in Projects within the original air districts, and $1 million in proposed transfers from district to district, meeting both deadlines set by SB 1018.

Story from press release, edited by Tom Slivick, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.