BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 49
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 49 (Buchanan)
As Amended August 22, 2014
2/3 vote. Urgency
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|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(May 30, 2013) |SENATE: | | |
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(vote not available)
Original Committee Reference: TRANS.
SUMMARY : Requires the California Department of Health Care
Services (DHCS) to apply to the California Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) to sponsor a breast cancer awareness specialized
license plate as specified.
The Senate amendments :
1)Provide intent language to clarify the breast cancer awareness
specialized license plate will be designed and issued
consistent with existing law and further clarifies that the
design will include a pink breast cancer awareness ribbon and
a breast cancer awareness message, as specified.
2)Remove provisions that require the breast cancer awareness
specialized license plate to be designed with a full-plate
graphic, as specified.
3)Includes an urgency provision.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Prior to 2007, any new specialized license plate
required specific legislative authorization. That practice was
held to be unconstitutional by the federal courts in that the
Legislature approved some of the plates and rejected others,
while using no standardized or objective criteria for those
decisions. 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.
AB 49
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Plates now created and the revenue they generate must publicize
or promote a state agency, or the official policy, mission, or
work of a state agency. Furthermore, the process requires that
at least 7,500 paid applications must be received by the state
agency prior to notifying DMV. The 7,500 application threshold
was previously put into statute for specialized license plates
and was arrived at in an attempt to assure that DMV's startup
costs would be fully covered by the portion of the registration
fee surcharge that is directed to DMV and to avoid a
proliferation of different types of plates, which can be
troublesome from a law enforcement perspective.
The author introduced this bill to raise revenue to help fund
imperative health care services to some of California's most
vulnerable residents. Specifically, this bill requires DHCS to
sponsor a breast cancer awareness specialized 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 DHCS
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.
Analysis Prepared by : Manny Leon / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
FN: 0005513