BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1623
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Date of Hearing: April 17, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Mary Hayashi, Chair
AB 1623 (Yamada) - As Amended: March 29, 2012
SUBJECT : Weights and measures: inspection fees.
SUMMARY : Extends the authority of a county board of
supervisors to charge fees to recover the costs of the county
sealer until January 1, 2018, and establishes or revises device
fee caps. Specifically, this bill :
1)Extends the authority of a county board of supervisors to
charge fees to recover the costs of the county sealer, as
provided, from January 1, 2013, until January 1, 2018.
2)Establishes the following fee caps for marinas, mobilehome
parks, recreational vehicle parks, and apartment complexes, as
specified:
a) $2 per device per space or apartment for water
submeters;
b) $3 per device per space or apartment for electric
submeters; and,
c) $4 per device per space or apartment for vapor
submeters.
3)Increases the fee cap from $175 to $200 per device for truck
mounted or stationary liquefied petroleum gas meters.
4)Increases the fee cap from $25 to $75 per device for wholesale
and vehicle meters.
5)Establishes a fee cap of $30 per device for computing scales,
as specified, and provides that the portion of the annual
registration fee consisting for the business location device
fees authorized by this bill shall not exceed $1,000 for each
business location.
6)Establishes a fee cap of $80 per device for jewelry and
prescription scales, as specified.
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7)Establishes a fee cap of $50 per device for weighing devices,
other than computing, jewelry, and prescription scales with
capacities between 100 and 2,000 pounds.
8)Establishes a $60 fee cap per device for vehicle odometers
utilized to charge mileage usage fees in vehicle rental
transactions.
9)Specifies that the portion of the annual registration fee
consisting of the business location fee and the device fees
authorized by this bill shall not exceed $400 per business
location.
10)Clarifies that the total portion of the annual registration
fee consisting of the business location fee and device fees
authorized by this bill not exceed $1,000 for each business
location.
11)Exempts vehicles employed in vehicle rental transactions from
the definition of a single business location.
12)Defines the "computing scale" as a weighing device with a
capacity of less than 100 pounds that indicates the money
value of any commodity weighed, at predetermined unit prices,
throughout all or part of the weighing range of the scale.
13)Makes technical changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the sealer of a county to inspect and test weighing
and measuring devices, as specified, that are used or sold in
the county and to weigh or measure packages to determine
whether they contain the amount represented, as provided.
2)Permits a county board of supervisors to charge fees, not
exceeding the cost of inspecting or testing weighing and
measuring devices, to recover the costs to perform these
duties until January 1, 2013.
3)Specifies that the annual registration fee for a business that
uses a commercial weighing or measuring device or devices
shall consist of a location fee, a Department of Food and
Agriculture administrative fee, and a device fee.
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4)Provides that for all other commercial weighing or measuring
devices not listed, the device fee shall not exceed $20 per
device, and that for purposes of these provisions, the
registration fee shall not exceed the sum of $1,000 for each
business location.
5)Specifies that the device fee for marinas, mobilehome parks,
recreational vehicle parks, and apartment complexes, as
specified, shall not exceed $2 per device.
6)Provides that for liquefied petroleum gas meters the device
fee shall not exceed $175 per device.
7)Provides that the device fee for wholesale and vehicle meters
shall not exceed $25 per device.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "County Sealers of Weights
and Measures annually inspect commercial weighing and measuring
devices to ensure that consumers are getting what they pay for
and businesses don't lose money to faulty equipment. Business
and Professions code 12240 gives authority to counties to
establish registration fees on inspected devices to provide
funding for their inspection program. Section 12240 also
prescribes limits for these fees in two ways: the law prohibits
counties from creating fees that exceed the cost of inspection,
and it prohibits counties from creating fees that exceed
specific monetary amounts outlined in the law. The law sets
these monetary limits at different levels for different
categories of devices to reflect the resources necessary to
testing that category including a category for devices that
don't necessarily fall into any other existing category. In the
event that a county collects more funds from registration fees
than covers costs despite these restrictions, Business and
Professions Codes 12242 and 12243 mandate that the program place
the excess funds in the county general fund where the county
will use them to reduce the registration fees creating the
excess. AB 889 (Ruskin) of 2005 set up the current fee caps
that were progressively implemented over the three years
following AB 889's passage. Section 12240's fee restrictions
have not received updates since full implementation of AB 889
occurred in 2008.
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"AB 1623 seeks to alleviate this problem by raising fee caps on
certain devices with significant disparities between current fee
caps and the cost of testing the device. ?In addition to the
substantive changes being made in the bill, AB 1623 extends the
sunset of the fee authority to January 1, 2018. This will
prevent the authority from lapsing and ensure that discussions
on the provisions of the authority will be entered into again in
2018.
"AB 1623 also seeks to address an issue raised the last time the
authority's sunset was extended. During the discussions of AB
2361 (Ruskin) of 2010, the last bill to extend the sunset, The
Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA) raised objections
to the way the registration fees were being applied to their
vehicles in certain counties under the current version of the
law. An agreement was reached between the sponsor and TRALA at
that time to only extend the sunset date two years (to 2013) and
that Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers would temporarily
cease applying the registration fee to rental trucks while they
studied the truck renting industry to learn more about it.
AB 1623 attempts to address this issue by separately
categorizing rental vehicles used in mileage based transactions
in Section 12240 of the Business and Professions Code, setting a
$50 per truck fee to cover costs associated with testing the
odometer, changing the definition of "business location" to
exclude individual rental vehicles from the definition of
"business location" for the purposes of the business location
fee, and setting a $400 total fee cap for a vehicle rental
business.
Background . Current law allows county boards of supervisors to
establish fees for business locations to partially fund local
weights and measures enforcement programs. The fees are the
single largest source of revenue for the county program outside
the County General Fund. The statute will sunset in January 1,
2013.
The authority for weights and measures registration fees was
passed by the Legislature in 1982 to provide funding for weights
and measures inspection activities. The law was amended
multiple times to add additional devices to the registration
program and to adjust the schedule of maximum fees. The section
now applies to virtually all weighing and measuring devices used
commercially. The only exceptions are farm milk tanks, which
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are specifically exempted, and check out scanners, which are not
considered weighing or measuring devices.
The range of weighing and measuring devices included in the
registration program currently includes retail fuel dispensing
meters; water meters; electric meters that measure electricity
that is sub-metered by a mobile home park; apartment complex, or
boat dock; liquefied petroleum gas meters or gas vapor meters
that are-sub-metered; truck scales, cattle scales and grocery
counter scales; taxi meters; and a variety of other devices that
weigh or meter a commodity offered for sale. The sunset date on
the device registration fees has been extended in 1985, 1987,
1988, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2005, and again in 2010.
Support . The sponsor of this bill, the California Agricultural
Commissioners and Sealers Association (CACASA), writes in
support, "The current structure for the annual 'Device
Registration Program' for commercial weighing and measuring
devices was established in 2005 (AB 889, Ruskin). Through the
provisions of this bill, local county governments were provided
with a framework to recover costs for ensuring the accuracy of
commercial transactions that were calculated using a scale,
meter, pump, or other weighing/measuring device used in the
marketplace. County Sealers of Weights and Measures annually
inspect these commercial weighing and measuring devices to
ensure that consumers are getting what they pay for; and to
ensure a 'level playing field' between industry.
"Since the 'fee caps' were established in 2005, counties have
been operating annual inspection programs as directed by state
law. After several years of operating at the maximum fee
allowable under current law, the majority of counties in the
State have found that some adjustments to the caps are necessary
to ensure cost recovery and the viability of the device
registration program.
"The only option available for local governments to recover
costs for administering this service is to request that the
Legislature make an appropriate adjustment to the fee caps.
Under the Government Code, virtually all other local government
programs have the flexibility to adjust local fees to recover
expenses without State Legislative action. This program
requires Legislative authority.
"Local governments will need to take the next step to justify
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and adopt new fees locally if they individually choose to adjust
the fees established by the state. CACASA agrees to continue
operating under a 'cap' system to ensure predictability from
year to year, but proposes to allow local governments to simply
recover costs under an updated, reasonable fee cap structure.
Any attempt to change fees by a Board of Supervisors would be
administered under a strict fee study and proposed and adopted
in a public meeting."
Opposition . Avis/Budget Group, Enterprise Holdings and The
Hertz Corporation write in opposition, "Since having the current
statutory authority, county sealers have rarely exercised their
regulatory power to require registration and inspect the
odometers of California's approximately 300,000 rental vehicles.
There are a number of reasons for this lack of action, including
the non-existence of any consumer complaints, the fact that it
is a rare rental customer who ever incurs a mileage charge, and
the lack of manpower and resources in the 58 counties to
efficiently administer such a program.
"It is only since the advent of the perpetual county fiscal
crisis that Sealers have begun to express interest in exercising
their current statutory authority. The impetus for their
interest in rental car odometers is clearly not from a consumer
protection perspective. California's 300,000 plus rental
vehicles are subject to over 10 million rental transactions
annually in California, involving over 25 million rental days.
Yet, the Sealers cannot produce one consumer complaint involving
mileage charges. The two primary reasons for this fact are: (1)
it is a rare rental customer (less than 1%) that incurs a
mileage charge, and (2) rental vehicles are almost exclusively
current and prior year models which have the latest advancements
in odometer technology. Today's odometers are virtually tamper
proof.
"The industry and the sponsors have been in discussion involving
this issue for nearly two years. The subject provision of law
was written with owner operated vehicles, such as taxis, in
mind. It was never the intent of the Legislature to ensnarl
rental vehicles in this requirement. Despite this fact,
language that would exempt rental cars from the onerous
provisions of odometer registration and fees has been offered to
and rejected by the sponsors."
Previous legislation . AB 2361 (Ruskin), Chapter 260, Statutes
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of 2010, extends the sunset date on the authority of the board
of supervisors of a county to charge fees to recover the costs
of the county sealer to perform specified duties until January
1, 2013.
AB 889 (Ruskin), Chapter 529, Statutes of 2005, extends
authority for county sealers of weights and measures to levy
civil penalties for violations in lieu of criminal prosecution;
extends the sunset on the authority for counties to charge
annual registration and device fees until January 1, 2011;
updates and revises the fee schedule levels; establishes, until
January 1, 2009, the authority for counties to inspect the
pricing accuracy of retail point of sale systems.
AB 1810 (Wiggins), Chapter 512, Statutes of 2000, extends the
sunset dates granting authority for civil penalties and device
registration fees relating to weights and measures.
SB 189 (Kelley), Chapter 476, Statutes of 1997, extends the
sunset date on the authority of the board of supervisors of a
county to charge fees to recover the costs of the county sealer
to perform specified duties until to January 1, 2001.
AB 1728 (Murray), Chapter 47, Statutes of 1995, extends the
sunset date on the authority of the board of supervisors of a
county to charge fees to recover the costs of the county sealer
to perform specified duties until January 1, 1998.
AB 2987 (Cramer) Chapter 1380, Statutes of 1982, established fee
collection authority for Weights and Measures program on a
county by county basis.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association
(sponsor)
Opposition
Avis/Budget Group
Enterprise Holdings
The Hertz Corporation
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Analysis Prepared by : Rebecca May / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301