BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 2068 SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: portantino VERSION: 5/21/12 Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes Hearing date: June 26, 2012 SUBJECT: License plates: legislators and members of Congress DESCRIPTION: This bill increases the fees that a current or retired legislator or a member of Congress must pay in order to have special license plates for his or her vehicle denoting that status. ANALYSIS: Existing law establishes a basic vehicle registration fee of $46, plus a $23 surcharge for additional personnel for the California Highway Patrol (CHP). A vehicle owner may request an environmental license plate (ELP) when registering his or her vehicle. An ELP is a personalized license plate (sometimes referred to as a "vanity plate") that DMV issues in a combination of letters, or numbers, or both, that the vehicle owner selects. ELP fees are $48 for issuance of the plate, $38 for renewal, $38 for duplicate plates, and $38 for transfer. Existing law provides that revenue derived from these fees shall be deposited in the California Environmental License Plate Fund. Initially authorized in 1979, the ELP Fund supports a variety of state activities that have some environmental connection. In addition, since 1979, a registered owner of a vehicle who is a current or retired member of the California Legislature or who is a current member of Congress may apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for special license plates for his or her vehicle that denote this status. The current or retired legislator or the member of Congress must pay $12 for issuance and $10 to move these plates to another vehicle. Current law does not impose an additional annual renewal fee for these plates. Revenues from these license plates accrue to the Motor AB 2068 (PORTANTINO) Page 2 Vehicle Account, which funds DMV and CHP. This bill increases the fees for issuance, renewal, and transfer to match the fees charged for personalized license plates. Thus, a current or retired legislator or current member of Congress will pay $48 for issuance, $38 for annual renewal, and $38 for transfer to another vehicle of these plates. COMMENTS: 1.Purpose . The author introduced this bill because the current fees for legislative and congressional license plates are not sufficient to cover the administrative and other costs of the license plates. He chose the amounts in this bill to equal those that the general public pays to personalize license plates under the state's ELP program. 2.Other specialized plates . Over the years, legislation has created numerous specialized license plates primarily as fundraising mechanisms for programs ranging from local veteran services to the Lake Tahoe Conservancy. To raise funds, a vehicle owner pays extra charges, typically around $50 for issuance and $40 for annual renewal, to have these plates on his or her vehicle. Revenues from these extra fees then help support the relevant program. State law also provides for various specialized license plates that provide recognition for military service rendered or for a particular occupation. Service recognition plates include Purple Heart Medal recipient plates, Congressional Medal of Honor plates, and Gold Star Family plates, all of which involve no extra fee for the plate and in some cases result in an exemption from the basic vehicle registration fee. Occupational plates include those for legislators, members of Congress, press photographers, and consular officials. These plates impose a varied range of extra fees depending on the legislation that provided for their creation. 3.Fees too high . DMV reports that there are less than 500 legislative and congressional license plates currently issued. The $12 fee to receive such plate dates from their authorizing legislation in 1978, and today this fee is insufficient to pay DMV's costs associated with the plates. One reason the author gives for this bill is to ensure that DMV's costs for these plate are covered by the fess. Increasing the issuance fee four-fold and imposing an annual AB 2068 (PORTANTINO) Page 3 renewal fee, as this bill proposes, would generate revenues far in excess of DMV's costs. Increasing the issuance fee from $12 to $18 would be sufficient to cover DMV's costs for legislative and congressional license plates. According to technical information provided by DMV, such an $18 fee would cover DMV's administrative costs to issue the plates, as well as the minor, incidental costs it incurs when renewing, transferring, or duplicating such plates. In general, it costs DMV no more to renew a standard license plate than a personalized plate, but existing law imposes the $38 renewal fee because personalized plates are a fundraiser for environmental programs. The committee may therefore wish to amend this bill to increase the fee for issuance of a legislative or congressional license plate to $18 in order to make this fee sufficient to cover the cost of the plate. 4.Making legislative and congressional plates a fundraiser . Revenues that come in from extra fees paid for legislative and congressional plates currently go into the Motor Vehicle Account, which funds the administration of the state's law related to the registration and licensing of vehicles and the enforcement of traffic laws, primarily through DMV and CHP. In contrast, revenues from the extra fees paid on personalized plates flow into the ELP fund to support various environmental programs. Because of the small number of legislative and congressional plates, the total revenue will be a small amount even given the fee increases in this bill. Still the amount will far exceed the costs of the plates, thus making these plates a fundraiser but without a program to support. As an alternative to the amendment in comment #3 above, the committee may wish to amend this bill to direct revenues it raises that are in excess of DMV's costs from congressional and legislative plates to the ELP fund in order to support environmental programs. Assembly Votes: Floor: 69 - 0 Appr: 16 - 1 Trans: 12 - 0 POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on AB 2068 (PORTANTINO) Page 4 Wednesday, June 13, 2012) SUPPORT: None received. OPPOSED: None received.