July 15, 2008
By Stephanie Nall
Contributed by Pacific Shipper
The California state Assembly on Tuesday voted 45-23 in favor of a $30-per-TEU charge on containers moving through ports to pay for transportation infrastructure and air quality improvement projects.
Introduced by State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach after years of discussion, the fee would be imposed on containers imported or exported through the ports of Los Angeles , Long Beach and Oakland .
On Monday the bill was amended with more than a dozen changes, mostly procedural. However, the adopted amendments mean that boxes crossing the docks at the Port of Oakland will be included. Officials there had sought an agreement that the port would be exempt from the fee if it imposed its own container fee to be used for similar projects.
Port commissioners earlier this month passed a tariff that would add a $12.50 per TEU fee to import and export boxes -- a level much lower than the separate fees of $50 per TEU that will be assessed on containers moving through San Pedro Bay ports beginning Oct. 1.
The state senate must now conduct a “concurrence” vote approving the Monday amendments. Lowenthal last week reviewed his list of changes to the measure with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who is expected to sign the legislation.
In addition to the language concerning Oakland , the amendments also list a number of specific projects to be paid for with the new container fee. Those projects include dozens of grade separations at rail-highway crossings in Los Angeles , Riverside , San Bernardino and Orange counties along with rail projects at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach .
Another change made Monday requires that replacing and retrofitting old, dirty trucks be given priority in spending the environmental funds.
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