(a) The Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation shall establish and maintain an operations fund for the payment of costs of operations and administration. The corporation shall prepare, prior to its fiscal yearend, an estimated annual operational budget projecting the costs of operations and administration for the succeeding fiscal year, excluding the amount paid for claims.

(b) (1) All participants making their initial payment of assessments shall pay to the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation an initial, one-time seventy-five dollar ($75) assessment per location from which the participant does business in the state in order to provide additional funding for the operations of the corporation, as those operations are authorized by the corporation’s board of directors.

(2) All participants making their initial payment of assessments shall pay to the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation an initial, one-time two hundred dollar ($200) assessment per location from which the participant does business in this state in order to provide additional funding for the restitution fund.

(c) All participants who were sellers of travel in any year, and who did not pay a Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation assessment in that year shall, when making a payment of assessment in a subsequent year, pay the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation all assessments for the operations of the corporation and the restitution fund for the years in which they were in business as were billed and paid by participants in those years.

(d) The Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation shall establish a restitution fund for the payment of claims. All claims shall be paid from the restitution fund.

(1) The restitution fund shall be in the form of a trust account maintained in the State of California with a federally insured bank that shall be selected by the Board of Directors of the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation and shall be approved by the office of the Attorney General. The Board of Directors of the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation or its delegate shall serve as trustee.

(2) The restitution fund shall meet the following criteria:

(A) The trustee shall deposit all restitution funds received into the trust account.

(B) The trustee shall maintain a separate accounting for disbursements and collections on account of claims against each participant. Quarterly reports shall be provided to the office of the Attorney General, Consumer Law Section.

(C) The trustee shall disburse funds from the trust as directed by the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation pursuant to Section 17550.47.

(D) The trustee may only invest the operations fund and trust funds in any of the securities described in subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 16430 of the Government Code.

(Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 924, Sec. 22. Effective January 1, 1999.)