BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1317
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Date of Hearing: June 25, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
SB 1317 (Kehoe) - As Amended: April 26, 2012
SENATE VOTE : 25-13
SUBJECT : Traffic violator school
SUMMARY : Reduces the renewal fee for approved classroom
locations and freezes various other fees related to the traffic
violator school (TVS) program. Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes findings and declarations regarding the need for
classroom-based TVS instruction for drivers who do not have
Internet access and the importance of keeping fees for those
services reasonable.
2)Provides that existing TVS-related statutes do not abrogate or
limit the inherent powers of a court to order a traffic
violator to attend and complete a TVS program of any length or
duration, as determined by the court to be reasonable under
the circumstances of the case before it, except that a
conviction may be held confidential by the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) only as permitted under existing law.
3)Prohibits DMV from adopting regulations that require TVSs to
provide or process paper-based documents for the purpose of
course instruction evaluations by students, unless expressly
authorized by statute.
4)Requires the classroom-based segment of DMV's list of licensed
TVSs to include the name of each TVS, a telephone number used
for student information, and the county and cities where
classes are available.
5)Allows each TVS owner to have one school name in a judicial
district.
6)Requires the classroom-based segment of the list to be
organized alphabetically in sections for each county.
7)Requires any hard-copy list of licensed TVSs provided by a
court or a traffic assistance program (TAP) to also include
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the name of each TVS, a telephone number used for student
information, and the county and cities where classes are
available.
8)Requires DMV to make available, for easy download by a
licensed TVS, and as may be required by a court, data that
includes that TVS's license number, name, primary business
office address, primary telephone number, and classroom
location addresses, if any.
9)Requires DMV to present the data for downloading in the form
of a comma-separated value formatted file.
10)Allows DMV to use and assign authorization codes and
passwords for the purpose of limiting unrestricted access to
this proprietary data.
11)Specifies that DMV's fees for issuing TVS-related licenses,
approving curricula, and administering examinations will be
equivalent to those imposed in the 2011-12 fiscal year except
for the fee for the renewal of an approved current classroom
location which will be set at $50 per year per location.
12)Requires the fee assessed by a court against a driver who
attends TVS to include an amount sufficient to defray DMV's
actual costs to administer its TVS program, except for the
costs defrayed by those other authorized fees described above.
13)Defines, for purposes of TVS-related statutes, "approved
current classroom location" to mean a classroom location that
received original approval from DMV, which was listed on the
classroom-based school's most recent classroom renewal
application, or any new classroom location subsequently added
by the classroom-based school and approved by DMV prior to the
school's next renewal application.
14)Requires the fee collected by the courts from traffic
violators referred to TVS to include sufficient funds to
defray DMM's costs to administer the TVS program.
EXISTING LAW : Requires DMV to license and regulate all TVSs,
regardless of whether they are classroom-based, online, or
presented in any other format.
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FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee
analysis, there will be:
1)One-time DMV costs, likely in the range of $190,000, 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.
2)Unknown annual revenue losses 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.
3)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 violators to
defray the costs to administer the TVS program.
COMMENTS : Existing law defines a TVS as a business which
provides traffic safety instruction, such as classroom
defensive-driver concepts, for traffic law violators referred by
the courts or for people who elect to attend to improve their
own skills. TVSs may present their course materials through
classroom-based programs as well as through home study programs,
which may offer instruction via a variety of means such as
internet, textbook, video, or CD ROM. Attending a TVS
essentially allows a traffic violator to pay a one-time fee to
avoid receiving a point against his or her driving record, which
reduces future car insurance costs, as well as the chance of DMV
suspending or revoking the violator's driving privileges.
Approximately one million licensed drivers, or one fourth of all
minor traffic offenders, take a TVS course annually.
After a decade of torturous negotiations among the numerous
stakeholders to reform the TVS program by providing uniform
regulation and oversight across the various instructional
modalities, the Legislature was finally successful in enacting
AB 2499 (Portantino), Chapter 599, Statutes of 2010, which made
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a number of changes, including directing DMV to license
non-classroom TVSs as of September 2011. In addition, AB 2499
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 required DMV to charge fees to the
schools sufficient to cover its actual cost to administer the
TVS program. Under this statute, as confirmed by a Legislative
Counsel opinion, TVS-related fees levied on violators may only
cover the cost of routine DMV monitoring of instruction.
Consequently, in order for DMV to fully recover its TVS-related
costs, it has had to increase its TVS license and approval fees.
According to the author, AB 2499 failed to provide TVSs with
needed administrative flexibility and caused the imposition of
fees that have left the classroom-based schools unable to
financially sustain themselves. In addition, the author
contends that information provided by DMV and the courts
regarding TVS locations remains woefully inadequate.
One of the TVS mandates in statute requires each classroom-based
school to seek approval of each of its classroom locations
annually from DMV. Subsequent to the passage of AB 2499, DMV
has increased the fee to do so from $50 to $100 in order to help
cover the administrative costs of the TVS program. This bill
permanently caps the classroom location renewal fee at $50 while
permanently freezing all other TVS fees at their current levels.
The bill replaces the loss in revenues, and assures full DMV
cost recovery, by requiring any shortfall to be made up from
higher fees on every violator who takes advantage of the TVS
program, regardless of whether they attend classroom-based TVSs
or take advantage of home study courses of instruction.
Aside from the issue of fees, this bill also reaffirms the power
of the courts to order violators to TVS programs outside of the
AB 2499 framework (a practice that the courts themselves sought
to end through the enactment of AB 2499), effectively bans DMV
from requiring TVSs to use paper-based documents for course
instruction evaluations by students (despite the fact that some
students may be attending classroom instruction precisely
because they are uncomfortable with non-paper formats), and
makes changes (at a cost described above) to the manner in which
DMV provides lists of licensed TVSs that are ultimately used by
traffic violators to choose a TVS that meets their needs.
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Suggested Committee amendments : Given that AB 2499 is only now
beginning to be implemented, it would appear that making
wholesale changes to its structure at this early date is at the
very least premature. But it is clear that classroom-based TVSs
face a challenge in maintaining viability in the face of both
intensifying competition and increased fee costs. As a means of
providing the industry of a period of transition, and in order
to give DMV the real-time experience that it needs to accurately
assess its fee-based costs, the Committee may wish to strike all
of this bill's provisions other than retaining its $50 renewal
fee for approved classroom locations, as well as its freeze on
all other fees, and make both of these requirements effective
only for calendar years 2013 and 2014. Subsequently, DMV would
set all fees in accordance with AB 2499.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Traffic School Association, Inc.
Fun-N-Cheap Comedy Traffic School
Gay Community Traffic School
Never Speed Again Comedy Traffic Schools
Traffic Safety Consultants, Inc.
Letters from 10 individual traffic violator school instructors
Opposition
American Safety Council
Distance Learning Company
I Drive Safely, L.L.C.
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093