BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2068
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2068 (Portantino)
As Amended April 9, 2012
Majority vote
TRANSPORTATION 12-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-1
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|Ayes:|Bonnie Lowenthal, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, |
| |Jeffries, Achadjian, | |Blumenfield, Bradford, |
| |Blumenfield, Bonilla, | |Campos, Davis, Donnelly, |
| |Buchanan, Eng, Ma, | |Gatto, Hall, Hill, Lara, |
| |Galgiani, Miller, Norby, | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, |
| |Portantino | |Solorio, Wagner |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Charles Calderon |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Increases fees for distinctive legislative and
congressional member license plates. Specifically, this bill :
1)Increases the fee for legislative and congressional member
license plates from $12 to $48.
2)Increases the transfer fee for legislative and congressional
member license plates from $10 to $38.
3)Adds a $38 annual renewal fee for legislative and
congressional member license plates.
4)Adds a $38 fee for a duplicate legislative and congressional
member license plate.
5)Specifies that additional fees received by the Department of
Motor Vehicles (DMV) for special legislative and congressional
member license plates are to be deposited into the Motor
Vehicle Account.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires DMV, upon registering a vehicle, to issue the owner
two license plates to identify the vehicle.
AB 2068
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2)Authorizes DMV to issue distinctive license plates to current
or former members of the California Legislature or United
States Congress.
3)Specifies that, in addition to regular fees for the original
registration or renewal, fees for the distinctive plates
include $12 for initial issuance of the special plate and $10
for the transfer of the plate to another vehicle.
4)Authorizes DMV to issue a variety of other license plates.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill would add an insignificant amount of annual
revenue, likely less than $30,000, to the DMV Motor Vehicle
Account which supports the administrative work of the DMV and
the California Highway Patrol.
COMMENTS : DMV began issuing distinctive license plates for
legislative or congressional members in 1978. These license
plates denote that the person is or was a member of the
California Legislature or member of the United States Congress.
Fees for these license plates, in addition to regular
registration fees, are set at $12 for the initial issuance of
the license plate and $10 to transfer the license plate to
another vehicle.
DMV issues a whole host of license plates, including:
1)Special license plates (e.g., amateur radio station, Gold Star
Family, Congressional Medal of Honor, press photographer,
horseless carriage, and Pearl Harbor survivor, among others);
2)Special interest license plates (e.g., environmental,
memorial, Arts Council, Coastal Commission, firefighters, and
Yosemite Foundation, among others); and,
3)Personalized license plates.
According to the DMV, direct and administrative costs for
legislative and congressional member license plates is $6.00 to
produce the plate and between $18 and $20 for related
administrative processing.
AB 2068
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The author argues that the statutorily prescribed fees for these
legislative and congressional member license plates are not
sufficient to cover DMV's direct costs. He has introduced this
bill to increase the fees for legislative or congressional
member license plates so that DMV's costs are fully recovered.
The increased fee rates prescribed in this bill mirror those set
forth for special interest license plates. It is important to
note that, for special interest license plates, a portion of the
fees collected supports the particular special interest, for
example, the Yosemite Foundation.
This bill will generate monies from legislative and
congressional member license plates over and above DMV's direct
costs. These additional funds will be directed into the Motor
Vehicle Account. It is not clear what the author's intent is,
if any, regarding the additional revenue that would be generated
as this bill provides no further parameters governing the use of
this money.
Recent legislation: AB 11 X4 (Evans), Chapter 11, Statutes of
2008, among other things, raised the voluntary Environmental
License Plate Fund (ELP) fee by $8 per plate (to $48 for new
plates and $38 for renewals). That fee increase generated
approximately $3 million in revenues annually and was used to
off-set cuts in the state's resources departments.
Analysis Prepared by : Victoria Alvarez / TRANS. / (916) 319-
2093
FN: 0003664