BILL NUMBER: AB 610	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  MARCH 21, 2012
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JANUARY 19, 2012
	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 22, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 27, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 6, 2011

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Solorio
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Blumenfield, Gatto, Jeffries, and
Williams)

                        FEBRUARY 16, 2011

   An act to add and repeal Section  5156.5  
5156.1  of the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles, and declaring
the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 610, as amended, Solorio. Vehicles: specialized license plates:
Veterinary Medical  Board: pilot program.  
Board. 
   (1) Under existing law, the Department of Motor Vehicles issues
environmental and other specialized license plates. The issuance of
some of those license plates is subject to additional fees. Existing
law prohibits the department from establishing a specialized license
plate program for a state agency until the department has received
not less than 7,500 applications for the plates  within 12 months
after the date of the department's approval of the agency's initial
application to sponsor a specialized license plate program  .

   This bill would authorize the Veterinary Medical Board to sponsor
a specialized license plate pilot program if certain conditions are
met. The bill would only require that an initial 3,500 paid
applications be collected and held by the board and that a sufficient
amount of additional funds be received from donations to cover the
department's startup costs for the manufacture of the specialized
license plate. To maintain the program, the bill would require that
an additional 4,000 license plates be sold within a year after
initial production of those specialized license plates. The bill
would require the board to actively request and receive donations
from public and private entities that would be deposited into the
Specialized License Plate Fund and, upon determination by the
department that there are sufficient funds for the program, moneys
would be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the
department for the necessary administrative costs of establishing the
specialized license plate program and, as to any remaining moneys,
for allocation to the board for programs that support spay and
neutering programs.  
   The bill would require the department to provide to the board an
itemized report of its actual costs to initiate the specialized plate
program.  
   This bill would authorize the Veterinary Medical Board to contact
the department by June 30, 2012, and indicate its intent to undertake
collection of additional applications and fees or deposits for an
additional period of 12 months in order to obtain the minimum 7,500
applications for a special license plate the board is seeking to
sponsor pursuant to existing law. The bill would make this provision
inoperative on July 1, 2013, and would repeal this provision on
January 1, 2014. 
   (2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
   Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    Section 5156.1 is added to the 
 Vehicle Code   , to read:  
   5156.1.  (a) Notwithstanding paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of
Section 5156, the Veterinary Medical Board may by June 30, 2012,
contact the department and indicate its intent to undertake
collection of additional applications and fees or deposits for an
additional period not to exceed 12 months in order to obtain the
minimum 7,500 applications for a license plate it is sponsoring. If
the board elects to exercise the option under this subdivision, it
shall contact each applicant who has submitted an application with
the appropriate fees or deposits to determine if the applicant wishes
a refund of fees or deposits or requests the continuance of the
holding of the application and fees or deposits until that time that
the board has received 7,500 applications. The board shall refund the
fees or deposits to an applicant so requesting. The board shall not
collect and hold applications for a period exceeding 36 months
following the date of approval of the board's initial application to
sponsor a specialized license plate program.
   (b) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2013, and, as
of January 1, 2014, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2014, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
 
  SECTION 1.    The Legislature finds and declares
all of the following:
   Based on statistics from the State Department of Public Health for
2010, 467,096 dogs and 400,433 cats entered shelters in the state.
Of the number of dogs entering shelters, 19 percent were reclaimed by
owners, 32 percent were adopted, and 38 percent were euthanized. Of
the number of cats entering shelters, only 2 percent were reclaimed
by owners and only 20 percent were adopted, and 69 percent were
euthanized. The data is incomplete because it does not include two
nonreporting counties and some counties only partially reported, and
the statistics do not include private shelters. Thus, in 2010, more
than 867,529 dogs and cats entered shelters and more than one-half
were euthanized.  
  SEC. 2.    Section 5156.5 is added to the Vehicle
Code, to read:
   5156.5.  (a) (1) The Veterinary Medical Board may apply to the
department to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and the
department shall issue specialized license plates for that program,
if the board complies with all of the requirements of this section.
The specialized license plate shall be of a size, color, and
configuration that meets the design criteria as set forth in Section
5155.
   (2) The department shall not issue specialized license plates to
the board for a vehicle that is exempt from the payment of
registration fees pursuant to Section 9101 or 9103.
   (b) The board may sponsor a specialized license plate program and
the department may establish the program in the absence of 7,500 paid
applications, as would be required under subdivision (a) of Section
5156 or Section 5157, if all of the following conditions are met:
   (1) The department shall establish a specialized license plate
program for the board when the department has received not less than
3,500 paid applications for the board's specialized license plates
and a sufficient amount of additional funds from donations to cover
the department's startup costs for the manufacture of the specialized
license plate. The board shall collect and hold applications for the
license plates. Once the board has received at least 3,500 paid
applications, it shall submit the applications, along with the
necessary fees, to the department.
   (2) No later than June 30, 2012, the minimum criteria of 3,500
plates and sufficient funds for the program startup costs shall be
achieved. At that time, the board shall submit the applications along
with the necessary fees to the department and the department shall
undertake production of the specialized license plate. Once the
license plate has been produced, is available to the public for
purchase, and its availability is published on the department's Web
site, the board shall have one year from that date to augment the
initial 3,500 license plates with an additional 4,000 license plates
to meet the minimum criteria for maintaining a new specialized
license plate pilot program of 7,500 license plates sold.
   (3) If the pilot program fails to achieve the 7,500 license plate
minimum criteria of license plates sold within the 12-month period
following the date of availability of the first produced license
plate, the department shall notify the board of that fact and shall
inform the board that the department will no longer issue or replace
those specialized license plates.
   (4) The board actively requests and receives donations for the
specialized license plate program, which may consist of donations
from public and private entities for deposit into the Specialized
License Plate Fund. Earnings generated from donations shall be
retained for the specialized license plate program authorized by this
section.
   (5) Upon determination by the department that there are sufficient
funds for the program, moneys shall be available, upon appropriation
by the Legislature, to the department for the necessary
administrative costs of establishing the specialized license plate
program.
   (c) (1) If the number of outstanding and valid specialized license
plates in the second year of the pilot program, including new
applications, are not more than 7,500, the department shall notify
the board of that fact and shall inform the board that the department
will no longer issue or replace those specialized license plates.
   (2) Those particular specialized license plates that were issued
prior to the discontinuation provided by paragraph (1) may continue
to be used and attached to the vehicle for which they were issued and
may be renewed, retained, or transferred pursuant to this code.
   (d) In addition to the regular fees for an original registration
or renewal of registration, the following additional fees shall be
paid for the issuance, renewal, or transfer of the specialized
license plates:
   (1) Fifty dollars ($50) for the original issuance of the plates.
   (2) Forty dollars ($40) for a renewal of registration with the
plates.
   (3) Fifteen dollars ($15) for transfer of the plates to another
vehicle.
   (4) Thirty-five dollars ($35) for each substitute replacement
plate.
   (e) After deducting its administrative costs under this section,
which moneys shall be available for expenditure by the department,
upon appropriation by the Legislature, the department shall deposit
the additional revenue derived from the issuance, renewal, transfer,
and substitution of the specialized license plates in the Specialized
License Plate Fund. Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the
moneys in that fund shall be allocated to the board and, except as
authorized under Section 5159, the board shall expend all funds
received under this section exclusively for projects and programs
that support spaying and neutering programs.
   (f) The department shall provide to the board an itemized report
of its actual costs to initiate the specialized license plate program
authorized under this section. 
   SEC. 3.   SEC. 2.   This act is an
urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the
public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of
the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts
constituting the necessity are:
   In order to ensure that the pilot program for a specialized
license plate becomes operative as soon as possible to allow the
Veterinary Medical Board to support the critically important efforts
of city and county animal shelters to address serious animal care and
control problems facing the state, it is necessary that this act go
into effect immediately.