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 




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          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 




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            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 




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          Wednesday,                                             June 13, 
          2012)

               SUPPORT:  None received.

               OPPOSED:  None received.