BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 49
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: BUCHANAN
VERSION: 7/1/13
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: YEs
Hearing date: July 9, 2013
SUBJECT:
Special interest license plates
DESCRIPTION:
This bill requires the Department of Health Care Services to
apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish a special
interest license plate that promotes breast cancer awareness.
ANALYSIS:
Any state agency, including the Department of Health Care
Services, may sponsor a special interest license plate pursuant
to AB 84 (Leslie), Chapter 454, Statutes of 2006. Under
AB 84, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) may issue new
special interest license plates only on behalf of state agencies
and only provided that for each state agency:
The license plate has "a design or contains a message that
publicizes or promotes a state agency, or the official policy,
mission, or work of a state agency." The design shall also be
confined to the left of and below the numerical series (i.e.,
no full plate designs allowed).
The state agency submits 7,500 applications and accompanying
fees to DMV for the license plate. The state agency has 12
months to collect these applications and fees, but it can
extend that to a maximum of 24 months if it notifies and
offers to refund fees to those who applied during the first 12
months. Once a plate is issued, DMV stops issuing that plate
for the agency if the number of plates drops below 7,500.
In addition to the usual registration and license fees, DMV
charges the following additional fees for specialized license
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plates: $50 for the initial issuance, $40 for annual renewal,
and $98 to personalize. DMV deducts its administrative costs
from the revenues generated. The net revenues derived from a
specialized license plate is then available upon appropriation
for the sponsoring state agency to expend exclusively on
projects and programs that promote the state agency's official
policy, mission, or work.
A sponsoring state agency may not spend more that 25 percent of
its license plate funds for administrative, marketing, and
promotional costs associated with the plate, and it must submit
an annual accounting report to DMV.
This bill :
1.Requires the Department of Health Care Services to apply to
DMV pursuant to AB 84 to sponsor a breast cancer awareness
license plate program. The Department of Health Care Services
may accept artwork donated by California artists for use on
the license plate it sponsors.
2.Directs the revenues derived from this license plate, after
paying DMV's costs, to the Breast Cancer Control Account in
the Breast Cancer Fund. This account funds the "Every Woman
Counts" program to provide early breast cancer detection
services for uninsured and underinsured women.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author introduced this bill to compel the
Department of Health Care Services to sponsor a breast cancer
awareness special interest license plate in order to raise
awareness of the importance of breast cancer screenings and to
increase funding for the state's Every Woman Counts program.
Every Woman Counts is part of the Department of Health Care
Service's Cancer Detection and Treatment Branch and provides
free clinical breast exams, mammograms, pelvic exams, and Pap
tests to California's underserved women. The mission of the
program is to save lives by preventing and reducing the
devastating effects of cancer for Californians through
education, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and
integrated preventive services, with special emphasis on the
underserved.
2.History of special interest license plates . Historically, the
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Vehicle Code required DMV to issue, upon legislative
authorization, a special interest license plate bearing a
distinctive design or decal of a sponsoring organization to
any vehicle owner that pays specified fees, provided that the
sponsoring organization met certain conditions. These
conditions included that the sponsor of a special interest
license plate had to collect 7,500 applications and fees for a
special license plate in order to pay DMV's costs of creating
a new plate, which are approximately $375,000 or 7,500
applications times the $50 fee.
In 2004, a federal court decision, Women's Resource Network v.
Gourley, E.D. Cal 2004, F.Supp.2d, 2004 U.S. Dist.,
invalidated the provisions of the Vehicle Code described in
comment #2. In the Gourley decision, the court declared
California's special interest license plate statutes
unconstitutional because they violated the First Amendment
right to freedom of speech. The court specifically objected
to the Legislature "picking and choosing" special license
plates that private organizations propose, in essence
promoting the message of some organizations while denying this
right to others. The court did allow the ten special interest
license plates existing at the time of its decision to remain
in use and available to new applicants, as they are today.
In response to the court decision, AB 84 (Leslie), Chapter
454, Statutes of 2006, established the current specialized
license plate program to provide a forum for government speech
that promotes California's state policies. AB 84 excludes
private organizations from seeking specialized license plates
as a forum for private speech, and thus addresses the court's
objection. Newly created plates and the revenue they generate
must publicize or promote a state agency, or the official
policy, mission, or work of a state agency.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 78-0
Appr: 17-0
Trans: 16-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, July 3,
2013.)
SUPPORT: Contra Costa Board of Supervisors
AB 49 (BUCHANAN) Page 4
OPPOSED: None received.