(a) The Legislature finds and declares, consistent with Section 65088, that it is in the interest of the State of California to have an integrated state and regional transportation planning process. It further finds that federal law mandates the development of a state and regional long-range transportation plan as a prerequisite for receipt of federal transportation funds. It is the intent of the Legislature that the preparation of these plans shall be a cooperative process involving local and regional government, transit operators, congestion management agencies, and the goods movement industry and that the process be a continuation of activities performed by each entity and be performed without any additional cost.

(b) The Legislature further finds and declares that the last attempt to prepare a California Transportation Plan occurred between 1973 and 1977 and resulted in the expenditure of over eighty million dollars ($80,000,000) in public funds and did not produce a usable document. As a consequence of that, the Legislature delegated responsibility for long-range transportation planning to the regional planning agencies and adopted a seven-year programming cycle instead of a longer range planning process for the state.

(c) The Legislature further finds and declares that the Transportation Blueprint for the Twenty-First Century (Chapters 105 and 106 of the Statutes of 1989) is a long-range state transportation plan that includes a financial plan and a continuing planning process through the preparation of congestion management plans and regional transportation plans, and identifies major interregional road networks and passenger rail corridors for the state.

(Added by Stats. 1992, Ch. 1177, Sec. 3. Effective September 30, 1992.)