BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 610
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 610 (Solorio)
As Amended March 21, 2012
2/3 vote. Urgency
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|ASSEMBLY: |65-7 |(June 01, 2011) |SENATE: |38-0 |(April 12, |
| | | | | |2012) |
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Original Committee Reference: TRANS .
SUMMARY : Provides an additional 12 months for the collection of
the 7,500 paid applications necessary for the Veterinary Medical
Board to successfully sponsor a specialized license plate.
The Senate amendments :
1)Delete the prior contents of the bill and insert the current
language.
2)Add an urgency clause allowing the bill to go into effect
immediately.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Allows any state agency to apply to the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) to sponsor a specialized license plate program.
2)Requires DMV to issue specialized license plates for that
program, if the agency complies with all statutory
requirements.
3)Prohibits DMV from establishing a specialized license plate
program for an agency until it has received not less than
7,500 paid applications for that agency's specialized license
plates.
4)Requires the agency to collect and hold applications for the
plates. Once the agency has received at least 7,500
applications, it must submit the applications, along with the
necessary fees, to DMV.
5)Prohibits advance payment to DMV of its estimated or actual
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administrative costs associated with the issuance of a
particular specialized license plate from constituting
compliance with the 7,500 application threshold requirement.
6)Requires funds accruing to a sponsoring state agency from the
sale of specialized license plates to be expended exclusively
for projects and programs that promote that agency's official
policy, mission or work.
7)Allows specialized license plates to feature a distinctive
design, decal, or distinctive message in a two-inch by
three-inch space to the left of the plate's numerical sequence
and a space not larger than 5/8 inch in height below the
numerical series.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Allowed a state agency to sponsor a specialized license plate
in the absence of 7,500 paid applications if the conditions
described below are met.
2)Prohibited DMV from establishing a specialized license plate
program for a state agency until DMV has received at least
2,500 paid applications for that agency's specialized license
plates and sufficient funds from donations to cover its
startup costs for plate manufacturing.
3)Specified that advance payment to DMV of DMV's program costs
by the agency sponsoring the plate may not constitute
compliance with the 2,500 application requirement.
4)Allowed the sponsoring agency to actively request and receive
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.
5)Required earnings generated from donations to be retained for
the prospective specialized license plate program.
6)Allowed funds to be appropriated to DMV by the Legislature for
the necessary administrative costs of establishing the
specialized license plate program, upon DMV's determination
that there are sufficient funds for the prospective
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specialized license plate.
7)Granted the sponsoring agency 12 months, following the date of
approval of the agency's initial application to sponsor a
specialized license plate program, to receive the required
number of applications.
8)Allowed the agency to either refund the fees or collect paid
applications for an additional 12 months if it is unable to
meet the 2,500 application standard within the first 12
months. If, after 24 months, the 2,500 application standard
still has not been met, all application fees must be refunded.
9)Discontinued the issuance of a specialized plate approved
under this process if its population falls below 2,500 for one
year but allows those plates that have already been issued to
continue to be used.
10)Required, for full-plate graphic design plates, an additional
$50 fee for original issuance, a $40 fee for renewal, a $15
fee for transfer, and a $35 fee for a substitute plate.
11)Required the design of the plate to be consistent with the
criteria contained in existing law that applies to specialized
license plates.
12)Required the revenues collected from the additional fees to
be allocated to the sponsoring agency for expenditure
exclusively for projects and programs that promote the
agency's official policy, mission or work.
13)Required DMV to provide the sponsoring agency an estimate of
its actual costs to initiate the license plate program.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. The current version of this bill was
withdrawn from the Senate Appropriations Committee pursuant to
Senate Rule 28.8.
COMMENTS : Prior to 2007, any new special interest license plate
required specific legislative authorization. This practice was
held to be unconstitutional in that the Legislature approved
some of the plates, and rejected others, using no standardized
or objective criteria for those decisions. Subsequently, as a
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result of AB 84 (Leslie), Chapter 91, Statutes of 2006, an
administrative process has been established wherein DMV will
issue specialized license plates when they are sponsored by a
state agency, the plate's message and the revenues it generates
support that agency's program, and at least 7,500 paid
applications have been received. The 7,500-application
threshold was previously put into statute for special interest
license plates and was arrived at in an attempt to assure that
DMV's startup costs would be fully covered by the portion of the
registration fee surcharge that is directed to the department
and to avoid a proliferation of different types of plates, which
can be troublesome from a law enforcement perspective.
The author of this bill asserts that the 7,500 application
requirement sets "a very high threshold for pre-orders." He
complains that this, in conjunction with another change enacted
in 2006 prohibiting full-plate graphics (also important to law
enforcement), has resulted in "no new plates (having) been
issued, even though numerous nonprofits have attempted to create
new special-interest license plates." He goes on to point out
that "specialty license plates bring additional revenue to the
DMV, while providing a funding source for various nonprofit
charities." Although the introduced version of the bill would
have allowed a plate to be established with only 2,500
applications, the bill now simply gives the Veterinary Medical
Board an additional year to meet the standard 7,500 application
threshold.
This bill is supported by a number of animal welfare advocates
who are desirous of establishing a Pet Lover's Plate that can
raise funds to support spay and neuter programs. They feel the
7,500 application standard to be overly burdensome and see this
bill as a means of boosting the prospects of obtaining this new
plate.
Legislative history: AB 1815 (Emmerson) of 2010, would have
allowed the establishment of a NASCAR plate, with the proceeds
benefitting the Bureau of Automotive Repair's vehicle repair and
retirement program. That bill passed the Assembly but died in
the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee without being
heard. AB 1242 (Achadjian) of 2011 would have established a
NASCAR plate whose proceeds would benefit the Foundation for
California Community Colleges. AB 1242 is a two-year bill that
ended up not being pursued.
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Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
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