BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1404 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 1404 (Feuer and Davis) As Amended August 9, 2012 Majority vote ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: | |(May 16, 2011) |SENATE: |22-16|(August 23, 2012) | | | | | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (vote not relevant) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |COMMITTEE VOTE: |8-5 |(August 28, 2012) |RECOMMENDATION: |concur | |(TRANS.) | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Original Committee Reference: ED . SUMMARY : Allows several counties to increase the surcharge from $1 to $2 that they impose on vehicle registrations in their respective jurisdictions to fund vehicle theft prevention, investigation, and prosecution programs. The Senate amendments : 1)Delete the prior contents of the bill. 2)Permit the Counties of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino to increase their $1 vehicle registration surcharges for vehicle theft prevention to $2 if the increase is adopted by their boards of supervisors by resolution. 3)Require, in those counties that elect to increase the $1 fee to $2, that the existing $2 vehicle registration surcharge for commercial vehicles be raised to $4. 4)Require the counties to submit these resolutions to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) at least six months prior to the date DMV begins collecting the increased surcharge. EXISTING LAW : 1)Allows counties, by resolution of the county board of AB 1404 Page 2 supervisors, to impose a $1 fee to be paid at the time of registration or renewal of registration of every vehicle registered to an address within that county, except trailers and those vehicles expressly exempted from payment of registration fees. The fees, after deduction of DMV's administrative costs are paid quarterly to the California State Controller (Controller). 2)Requires all commercial motor vehicles registered in those counties to pay an additional service fee of $2. 3)Appropriates the funds continually, without regard to fiscal years, for the administrative costs of the Controller, and for disbursement by the Controller to each participating county, based upon the number of vehicles registered, or whose registrations are renewed, to addresses within that county. 4)Requires money allocated to a county to be expended exclusively to fund programs that enhance the capacity of local police and prosecutors to deter, investigate, and prosecute vehicle theft crimes. In any county with a population of 250,000 or less, the money must be expended exclusively for those vehicle theft crime programs and for the prosecution of crimes involving driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both, or vehicular manslaughter, or any combination of those crimes. 5)Prohibits this money from being expended to offset a reduction in any other source of funds, or for any purpose not authorized under this statute. 6)Requires each participating county to submit a quarterly expenditure and activity report to the designated statewide Vehicle Theft Investigation and Apprehension Coordinator in the California Highway Patrol (CHP). 7)Requires participating counties to issue a fiscal year-end report to the Controller that includes a detailed accounting of the funds received and expended in the immediately preceding fiscal year, including specified information on expenditures. 8)Suspends the fee for one year in any county that fails to submit the report. 9)Requires the Controller annually to prepare and submit to the Legislature revenue and expenditure summary for each AB 1404 Page 3 participating county that includes the total revenues received by each county, the total expenditures by each county, and the unexpended revenues for each county. 10)Sunsets all of these provisions on January 1, 2018. AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill dealt with the licensure of attorneys by the State Bar. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, all administrative costs to DMV and the State Controller's Office will be fully recovered from fee revenues collected. Additionally, there will be potential revenue gains of approximately $7.2 million for Los Angeles County, $2.5 million for San Diego County, and $1.6 million for San Bernardino County if increases to vehicle surcharges are approved. COMMENTS : This bill is substantially similar to AB 1768 (Davis), which failed in the Assembly Transportation Committee 7-4 (eight votes needed for passage) in April. AB 1768 would have allowed for a $3 fee and applied only to Los Angeles County. SB 2139 (Ed Davis), Chapter 1670, Statutes of 1990, authorized counties to impose a $1 surcharge on vehicle registrations to fund vehicle theft programs. Since then, the cost of these programs has far outpaced the increased number of registered vehicles on the road. Forty-seven counties impose the surcharge, including Los Angeles County, where, in 1993, the Board of Supervisors imposed a $1 fee to create a vehicle theft program called the Taskforce for Regional Auto-theft Prevention (TRAP). TRAP is a multi-agency task force that investigates, prosecutes, and deters vehicle theft and fraud on a coordinated and cooperative basis. The author and sponsors report that TRAP has been highly successful in combating vehicle theft and fraud by focusing on organized vehicle theft rings, "chop shops," international auto theft rings that steal vehicles and ship them to other countries, individuals who obtain vehicles by fraud, and other forms of vehicle theft. Los Angeles County reports that since 1993, TRAP has made approximately 9,300 arrests, recovered over 23,000 vehicles worth nearly $400 million, and prosecuted over 4,000 cases of automobile AB 1404 Page 4 theft. In recent years TRAP has had to reduce the number of personnel assigned to the program due to increases in operating, fuel, and equipment costs. The sponsor states that these reductions have negatively impacted TRAP's ability to effectively combat auto theft in Los Angeles County and notes that in 2004 TRAP employed 71 personnel to combat auto theft at a cost of $7.3 million. This year, TRAP employed only 29 people at a cost of $7.2 million. As time goes on, in the not-so-distant future the TRAP team will not have sufficient funding to do its job. This bill would give Los Angeles County the authority to double the funds it has for the TRAP program. Proposition 26 requires that any "change in statute which results in a taxpayer paying a higher tax must be imposed by an act passed by not less than two-thirds of all members elected to each of the two houses of the Legislature." This bill does not result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax but delegates to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors the authority to impose a higher surcharge on vehicle registrations to fund a specific government function. Ultimately, the Los Angeles County Counsel would have to determine a vote threshold at the county level. So while this bill is a majority vote measure in the Legislature, the local action to increase the registration surcharge may require a two-thirds vote of the electorate in a county. The current contents of this bill have not been heard by any Assembly committee. Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 FN: 0005722