BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 1317 (Kehoe) - Traffic violator schools
Amended: May 3, 2012 Policy Vote: T&H 5-3
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 7, 2012 Consultant: Mark McKenzie
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1317 would make several changes related to the
administration of the traffic violator school (TVS) program and
shifts a portion of the cost burden for program administration
from the schools to traffic violators who are ordered or
permitted to attend a TVS.
Fiscal Impact:
One-time Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) costs, likely
in the range of $190,000 (Motor Vehicle Account), to create
a new database capable of a multi-step listing system for
classroom locations (first by county, then by city, then
randomizing locations). Ongoing annual costs in the range
of $190,000 for database maintenance and data input.
Out-year ongoing costs could be offset if DMV increases the
recently adopted administrative fee charged on traffic
violators.
One-time DMV costs of approximately $100,000 (Motor Vehicle
Account) to make programming changes that allow for the
masking of a two-point violation related to reckless
driving. (see suggested amendment)
Unknown annual revenue losses (Motor Vehicle Account)
related to reducing the fee charged for each TVS branch or
classroom location from $100 to $50. Out-year revenue
losses could be mitigated if DMV increases the recently
adopted administrative fee charged on traffic violators.
Unknown future revenue losses related to capping the fees
charged to TVS owners, operators, and instructors at 2011-12
levels, rather than authorizing DMV to charge fees on TVSs
sufficient to defray costs. These potential losses are
offset by authorizing DMV to increase fees on traffic
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violators to defray the costs to administer the TVS program.
Background: Existing law authorizes courts to order a person to
attend a licensed traffic violator school, a licensed driving
school, or other court-approved program of driving instruction,
under specified circumstances, in lieu of adjudicating a traffic
offense. The TVS program includes both classroom-based schools
and home study classes that provide instruction through the
internet, textbook, video, or CD ROM. Successful completion of
a TVS allows a traffic violator to avoid the assignment of a
violation point on his or her driving record and future car
insurance premium increases.
In an effort to make the TVS program more effective and uniform
across instructional modalities, AB 2499 (Portantino) Chap
599/2010 made a number of changes to the program, including a
requirement that licensing fees be paid for all TVS owners,
operators, instructors, and classroom locations in an amount
sufficient to defray actual costs for DMV to administer the
program. AB 2499 also changed specific implementing details
pertaining to the program, such as how DMV disseminates
information about these schools and how schools notify courts of
a violator's successful course completion. Finally, AB 2499
authorized DMV to charge a fee on traffic violators that would
be collected by the courts in an amount sufficient to defray the
cost of routine monitoring of instruction.
DMV adopted regulatory changes, effective September 1, 2011,
that implement the new schedule of TVS program fees related to
licensure of TVS owners, operators, and instructors, as well as
the fees for reviewing lesson plans for all TVS programs. TVS
school owners are required to pay the following fees for
issuance of a license by DMV: a $200 fee for an original
license, a $100 fee for annual renewal of the license, and a
$100 fee for each separate TVS branch or classroom location.
The fee for approval of a lesson plan is based on instructional
modality; the fee is $475 for a classroom lesson plan and $800
for a home study or internet lesson plan. The regulations also
established an administrative fee of $3 to be assessed by the
court on each traffic violator referred to a TVS. The licensing
fee changes represent the first adjustment in TVS fees in 36
years.
Proposed Law: SB 1317 would make the following changes to the
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TVS program:
Prohibit DMV from adopting regulations that require a TVS to
provide or process paper-based course evaluation documents.
Require the DMV class listings to specify the counties where
classroom instruction is offered, in addition to providing
that information by city.
Require the classroom-based list to include specified
information and require these lists to be organized
alphabetically in sections for each county.
Require a TVS to update course completion information on DMV's
web-based database within ten days of completion, rather than
the current three day requirement.
Extend the time period in which a TVS must update course
completion information on DMV's web-based database from within
three days of completion to ten days.
Delete the authority for DMV to charge fees for TVS licenses
at a level sufficient to defray costs to administer the TVS
program, and instead freeze the schedule of fees charged for
TVS licenses at 2011-12 levels, except the $100 fee charged
for each separate TVS branch or classroom location, which
would be reduced to $50.
Require the administrative fee charged to traffic violators
who participate in the TVS program to be sufficient to defray
DMV's costs to administer the TVS program. Under existing
law, the administrative fee may only be used to defray the
costs of routine maintenance of the program.
Related Legislation: AB 2499 (Portantino) Chap 599/2010
established uniform procedures for licensing and regulating all
forms of TVS instruction that requires full recovery of all
administrative costs related to the program.
Staff Comments: DMV's costs to administer the TVS program are
currently covered by licensing TVS owners, operators, and
instructors, including fees charged for each TVS branch or
classroom location. The monitoring and database costs are
currently covered through the administrative fee assessed by the
courts on traffic violators. The changes proposed by SB 1317
would shift some of the burden of DMV administrative costs from
the classroom-based schools to the traffic violator, regardless
of the modality of instruction chosen by the violator.
Specifically, the bill decreases the fee for licensing each
branch or classroom location to a level that covers less than
half of DMV's costs related to administering these locations,
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and freezes the overall TVS licensing fee schedule at the
2011-12 levels. These changes are contrary to the intent of SB
2499, which required costs to administer the TVS program to be
covered by the fees paid by those schools. The administrative
fee paid by traffic violators was intended to cover the
monitoring of the program and database costs, since those
functions are more closely tied to the courts. SB 1317 still
allows DMV to defray its costs to administer the TVS program,
but complicates the relationship between the fees paid and their
ultimate use.
Existing law requires DMV to provide a list of licensed TVSs on
its internet website that indicates the modalities of
instruction for each school, and specifies the cities where
classroom instruction is offered. The sequential listing is
randomized daily so as not to give a competitive advantage to
any school or modality. SB 1317 would require DMV to segregate
the TVS list posted on its website by county as well as city,
require the classroom-based segment to include new data fields,
and require the classroom-based segment to be organized
alphabetically in sections for each county, rather than
randomized daily. DMV's current database is incapable of
accommodating these changes, and the bill would require the
creation of a new database that allows for segregated
organization for the classroom-based segment. This would create
one-time costs that could not be absorbed under the current fee
structure. Ongoing maintenance costs would be offset to the
extent DMV increased the recently-adopted administrative fee.
The bill removes the ability to provide for course evaluation by
students, which is a critical tool used to effectively assess
the quality of education provided as well as the effectiveness
of the class on improving public safety. The reasons for
explicitly prohibiting DMV from requiring a TVS to provide or
process paper-based course evaluation documents are unclear.
Recommended Amendments: The bill inadvertently deletes a cross
reference, which would have the effect of allowing a traffic
violator who is convicted of reckless driving (a two-point
violation) to attend a TVS and have the violation masked from
the driving record. Currently, referral to a TVS is not
authorized for two-point violations. This would cause DMV to
incur programming costs, likely in the range of $100,000, to
make necessary IT changes to recognize that this two-point
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violation may be suppressed from the driving record. Staff
recommends the following amendment to reinsert the cross
reference to alleviate these programming costs and to continue
the policy of prohibiting violators convicted of two-point
violations from attending a TVS:
Page 11, line 33, after the second comma insert: 23103,