BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1658
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Date of Hearing: April 18, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1658 (Gatto) - As Amended: April 11, 2012
Policy Committee:
TransportationVote:14-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to
establish the California Legacy License Plate Program (LLPP) to
replicate the look of historic plates. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires DMV to issue license plates that match the color
combination of plates from past decades, to the extent
possible and consistent with current production techniques and
legal requirements, such as plates with a blue background and
gold lettering issued in the 1980s.
2)Establishes a schedule of supplemental fees to be paid by a
vehicle owner seeking to receive, renew, transfer or replace
an LLPP plate.
3)Provides that DMV shall not establish the LLPP until it has
received 7,500 paid applications for the plates.
4)Makes LLPP plate fees available to the department, upon
appropriation, to cover administrative costs of the legacy
plate program and any to deposit any excess revenue in the
Environmental License Plate Fund (ELPF).
5)Directs DMV, immediately after January 1, 2014, to refund
legacy plate fees if the department has not received 7,500
paid applications for such plates.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Potential one-time costs of approximately $385,000 to DMV to
establish the Legacy License Plate Program, including computer
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programming changes and updating of forms. (MVA.) DMV will
make computer programming and form changes only after LLPP
applications surpass the 7,500 application threshold.
Therefore, DMV will incur these costs only if it receives
enough applications to require it to implement the program.
2)Minor, absorbable one-time costs to DMV in 2012-13 and 2013-14
to administer the application process and, should the
department fail to receive 7,500 applications within the
timeframe, to issue refunds. (Motor Vehicle Account (MVA).)
3)Potential annual costs of approximately $15,000 to DMV to
administer program.
4)Potential annual revenue of an unknown amount, but sufficient
to cover DMV's one-time and ongoing costs, assuming the
program receives more than 7,500 applications for retro
plates.
5)Potential ongoing annual revenue of an unknown, but minor
amount, to the ELPF.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale. The author intends this bill to allow car owners
to use legal license plates that appear like California
license plates issued in the past. The author contends this
look is desirable especially to owners of "retro" looking new
cars and of vintage cars.
2)Background. Current law allows a state agency to apply to DMV
to sponsor a specialized license plate program. DMV may not
establish such a program until the sponsoring agency has
received 7,500 paid applications for the specialized plate.
Generally, if the sponsoring agency has not received 7,500
paid applications within 12 months of program approval, DMV
may not implement the program and the sponsoring agency must
refund application fees.
In some cases, fees for a particular specialized plate, minus
DMV administrative costs, are dedicated to purposes related to
the topic of the specialized plate. For example, half of the
revenues, minus administrative costs, from fees for the
California Whale Tail License Plate, produced pursuant to a
program sponsored by the California Coastal Commission, go
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towards coastal education, protection and restoration
programs. The rest goes to the California Environmental
License Plate Fund, which pays for environmental programs
throughout the state.
The program created by this bill differs from other
specialized plate programs in that the bill does not designate
an agency as the sponsor of the program. Typically, such a
sponsoring agency promotes the specialized plate program and
manages applications until they exceed the 7,500 threshold.
Additionally, a sponsoring agency typically is responsible for
refunding application fees for a specialized plate that fails
to receive the required minimum number of applications. This
bill, in contrast, requires DMV, rather than a sponsoring
agency, to hold applications until the threshold is surpassed
and to immediately refund application fees if the threshold is
not surpassed before January 1, 2014.
In addition, the bill requires DMV to establish a program of
specialized plates that may include more than one
design-yellow background with black lettering, black
background with yellow lettering and blue background with
yellow lettering, at least. It is not clear whether DMV is to
make available each plate design upon receiving 7,500
applications or if it is only to make available a particular
plate design after receiving 7,500 applications for that
particular design.
3)"Retro" Plates Likely Not Too Retro Looking. The bill calls
for license plates that replicate the look of past plates.
Mainly at the insistence of law enforcement, new plates must
meet various, specific requirements, such as reflectivity and
font types, that differ from the requirements of past plates.
For this reason, it is likely the plates produced as a result
of this bill will differ considerably from historic plates
with similar color schemes.
Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081