BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: Ab 28
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: huber
VERSION: 5/10/11
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 21, 2011
SUBJECT:
Vehicle registration: reciprocity commission
DESCRIPTION:
This bill deletes obsolete provisions in the Vehicle Code that
address registration of commercial vehicles that travel both
inside and outside of California.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law creates the Reciprocity Commission to examine the
legal requirements for commercial vehicle registration by
foreign jurisdictions and to grant reciprocal privileges to
out-of-state vehicles. It prescribes the membership of the
commission as the Lieutenant Governor, the Director of the
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the Director of the
California Department of Transportation, the State Controller,
and the Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol. Existing
law authorizes the commission to enter into agreements on behalf
of the State of California with foreign jurisdictions for the
registration of foreign vehicles. The Attorney General must
approve all reciprocity agreements, rules, and regulations
authorized by the commission.
Federal law permits California to enter into the International
Registration Plan Agreement to collect registration fees for
commercial vehicles that operate on an interstate basis. Under
this International Registration Program (IRP), states, the
District of Columbia, and Canadian provinces collect
registration fees for vehicles based in their jurisdictions, and
then share those fees based on the amount a particular vehicle
operates in each jurisdiction. State law empowers the
commission to enter into the IRP on behalf of California.
California entered the IRP in 1985, thus making the bilateral
reciprocity agreements and much of the work of the Reciprocity
Commission obsolete.
AB 28 (HUBER) Page 2
This bill :
1.Deletes from state law the Reciprocity Commission, provisions
governing its administration and duties, authorization for
reciprocal registration agreements, and the duty of the
Attorney General to approve its agreements.
2.Transfers the authority held by the commission to enter into
and become a member of the International Registration Plan
Agreement to the director of the DMV or his or her designee.
3.Makes other related clarifying changes.
COMMENTS:
Purpose . Beginning in 1959 and until 1985, the Reciprocity
Commission entered into reciprocity agreements with foreign
jurisdictions, mostly other states, for the registration and
operation of commercial vehicles that cross jurisdictional
lines. The commission's duties became obsolete when California
joined the International Registration Plan Agreement in 1985.
IRP is a registration reciprocity agreement among states of the
United States, the District of Columbia, and provinces of
Canada, which provides for payment and sharing of registration
fees on the basis of fleet distance operated in various
jurisdictions.
Today, the 48 contiguous US states, the District of Columbia and
ten Canadian provinces, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New
Brunswick, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and
Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, are all members
of the IRP, which registers over two million commercial
vehicles.
Once California entered the IRP in 1985, the duties of the
commission became largely obsolete. The author introduced this
bill to delete references to the commission from state statute
and to authorize DMV to administer IRP agreements.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 75-0
Appr: 17-0
Trans: 14-0
AB 28 (HUBER) Page 3
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 15,
2011)
SUPPORT: None received.
OPPOSED: None received.