BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           2097 (Miller)
          
          Hearing Date:  08/02/2010           Amended: 05/28/2010
          Consultant: Mark McKenzie       Policy Vote: T&H 9-0
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:  AB 2097 would require specified persons who have  
          requested confidentiality of their home address in Department of  
          Motor Vehicles (DMV) records to provide DMV with a current  
          employment address, and makes the following changes to improve  
          the collections of traffic, parking, and toll road violations:
           Require DMV to update the form to request address  
            confidentiality to include the requirement for providing a  
            current employment address.
           Requires persons who have requested address confidentiality to  
            notify DMV within 10 days of changes to an employment address.
           Require the human resources offices to provide the updated  
            forms to all new applicants and existing enrollees on or after  
            January 1, 2011, and forward all completed and updated forms  
            to DMV's Confidential Records Unit by April 1, 2012.
           Authorizes a notice of traffic, parking, or toll road  
            violation to be sent to the person's employment address for  
            purposes of serving a notice to appear.
           Require DMV to refuse renewal of a vehicle registration if a  
            person qualifying for address confidentiality receives a  
            notice of violation at his or her workplace and has unpaid  
            parking or traffic citation penalties.
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          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2010-11      2011-12       2012-13     Fund
           DMV record updates     significant costs, likely in the range of  
                                 Special*
                                   $1,000 - $3,000 to manually update DMV
                                    records by 2012 to reflect employer  
          addresses

          CHP address reporting  unknown, potentially significant costs  
          toSpecial*
                                   process updated forms with employees
          ____________
          * Motor Vehicle Account










          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the  
          Suspense File.
          
          Existing law provides for certain persons to request that their  
          home address in DMV records be kept confidential.  This  
          provision applies to certain public officials, federal, state,  
          and county employees, and public safety personnel, as specified.  
           Confidential addresses may only be disclosed to the courts, a  
          law enforcement agency, the Board of Equalization, and certain  
          attorneys and government agencies.  Requests for address  
          confidentiality are made through the qualifying employer and  
          forwarded to DMV, who keeps hard copies of the records, which  
          makes retrieval a time consuming manual process.  DMV indicates  
          that it currently keeps about 1.5 million records confidential  
          through this program.
          Page 2
          AB 2097 (Miller)

          The current confidentiality process has kept many local agencies  
          from collecting on delinquent parking, traffic, and toll  
          violations.  Although law enforcement and local governments can  
          request that confidential addresses be unmasked for purposes of  
          enforcing violations, the process is time consuming.  Also, many  
          local governments are contracting with private entities for the  
          collection of traffic fines and these entities do not have  
          access to confidential DMV records.  This bill is intended to  
          allow for a process of enhanced collections while protecting the  
          home address of persons eligible for confidentiality.

          DMV indicates that the bill places a significant burden on the  
          department to obtain and process employment address information  
          for the 1.5 million records it currently has on hand.  Since the  
          deadline for submitting employment information is not until  
          April of 2012, it is assumed that the costs can be spread over  
          two fiscal years, but most of the revised applications are  
          likely to be submitted to DMV in 2011-12.  DMV indicates that  
          the total costs are likely in the range of $1 - $3 million.   
          Costs to update the confidentiality request form are minor and  
          absorbable.

          CHP, as a large public safety employer whose officers are  
          eligible for address confidentiality, would also have  
          significant costs to process applications for its 11,000  










          employees and forward updated address information to DMV.   
          Actual costs are unknown and would depend upon the number of  
          employees seeking confidentiality.

          This bill could also result in increased revenue collections of  
          hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to local agencies  
          related to increased collections on parking, traffic, and toll  
          road violations.