BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 482 (Atkins) - California Cultural and Historical Endowment.
Amended: June 19, 2013 Policy Vote: NW&R 6-1
Urgency: Yes Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 30, 2013 Consultant:
Marie Liu
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 482 would allow the California Cultural and
Historical Endowment (CCHE) to create a competitive grant
program to support small capital projects in museums and to fund
that program with proceeds from a new specialty license plate.
Fiscal Impact (as proposed to be amended):
Ongoing annual costs, of approximately $400,000 for the
CCHE's administrative costs for the grant program. These
costs would completely be borne by revenues from the
specialty license plate.
One-time costs of approximately $400,000 from the Motor
Vehicle Account (special) to the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) to establish a program for each new plate
design that meets the 7,500 application threshold by January
1, 2015. These costs would be fully covered by fees paid in
advance by applicants. Ongoing DMV costs to administer the
issuance and renewal of the specialty plate will also be
fully covered by fees.
Unknown ongoing revenue, anticipated in the hundreds of
thousands to millions of dollars, to the California Cultural
and Historical Endowment Fund (special) depending on the
participation rate in the museum specialty license plate.
Background: The CCHE was established in the State Library in
2003 (AB 716 (Firebaugh) Chapter 1126/2002) to assist and
enhance the services of California's museums and other
institutions that undertake cultural projects. The CCHE is led
by a 10-member board which includes the State Library (chair),
the Natural Resources Agency, the Director of Finance, three
members appointed by the governor, two members appointed by the
Senate Rules Committee, and two members appointed by the
Assembly Speaker.
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The California Cultural and Historical Endowment Fund (fund) is
created in EDC §20060 and receives monies from gifts, donations,
and other financial support from public and private sources. The
fund is continuously appropriated to the CCHE.
Voters approved the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe
Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Act of 2002
(Proposition 40), which made available monies for the
acquisition, restoration, preservation, and interpretation of
California's historical and cultural resources. Over $120
million has been distributed by the CCHE to date. In this year's
budget, the remaining $1.4M of Proposition 40 monies reserved
for historical and cultural resources was appropriated to CCHE
for a final year of grants under its existing grant program.
Existing law allows any state agency to apply to the California
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to sponsor a specialized
license plate program (VEH §5151 et seq.). The DMV may issue the
new plates if certain conditions are met, including that the
license plate publicizes or promotes the agency or its mission,
at least 7,5000 applications and fees are received within a
24-month period, and plate revenues are exclusively for projects
and programs that promotes the agency's policy, mission, or
work. The sponsoring state agency may use no more than 25% of
the place proceeds on administrative costs or marketing of the
specialized plate.
Proposed Law: This bill would allow the CCHE to establish a
competitive grant program for small capital projects in museums.
The administration of this program would be initially funded by
monies in the fund from Proposition 40.
If such a grant program was created, on or before October 1,
2013, the CCHE would be required to apply to the DMV for a
specialty license plate. The fees collected from the sale of the
specialized license plate, less DMV's costs, would be deposited
into the fund to fund the grant program. Once revenues are
received from the specialty license plate, the grant program may
only be funded through specialty license plate revenues.
This bill would also transfer the CCHE from the State Library to
the Natural Resources Agency by making the Secretary of the
Natural Resources Agency the chair and the State Librarian a
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member.
Related Legislation: There have been numerous proposals for
specialty license plates including AB 49 (Buchanan) and AB 1096
(Nestande) in the current legislative session and AB 1658
(Gatto), AB 1539, and AB 610 (Solorio) in the 2012. These
proposals involved plates for issues other than cultural and
historical resources.
Staff Comments: CCHE currently has an administrative budget of
approximately $430,000. Moving CCHE to Resources Agency out of
the State Library is anticipated to result in administrative
savings of approximately $30,000 to $40,000 for lower facilities
costs. Thus, CCHE's administrative costs will likely be
approximately $400,000 should this bill pass. Staff notes that
their administrative costs are likely to change depending on the
revenues received from the specialty license plate and the size
of the grant program.
As noted in the background, this year's budget appropriated the
remainder of the CCHE Proposition 40 monies to fund projects
under the existing grant program. This bill would take the
appropriated monies and instead utilize them for a new grant
program. As such staff notes that this bill is not consistent
with Legislative actions in this year's budget.
Staff notes that the existing grant program does not have
sufficient eligible projects to deliver the remaining funds.
Thus, CCHE will need to send out a new request for grant
applications to deliver the remaining funds, regardless of
whether it is through the existing grant program or a new
program.
Although it is no longer specified in the bill, the intention of
the CCHE is for the museum specialty license plate to feature
the Snoopy cartoon character, a licensed image to Jean Schulz
and made available through the California Association of
Museums. CCHE approved a plan for the new grant program allowed
under this bill that would split the proceeds from the specialty
license plate three ways- 60% for the grant program, 20% for the
administration of CCHE, and 20% to the California Association of
Museums.
Staff notes that state agencies that sponsor specialty license
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plates often have initial one-time costs to collect the required
number of applications. CCHE indicates that the California
Association of Museums will be collecting these signatures so
that no costs are born by CCHE for these activities.
This bill makes an appropriation as it directs spending of the
California Cultural and Historical Endowment Fund, which is a
continuously appropriated fund.
This bill would require CCHE to apply for a specialty license
plate by October 1, 2013. Staff notes that this deadline is
before the Governor's deadline to sign or veto bills passed at
the end of session. So though this is an urgency measure, the
deadline may occur before the effective date of the bill.
Proposed Author Amendments: Amend to delete redirection of
Proposition 40 monies.