BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 767
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: levine
VERSION: 4/29/13
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 11, 2013
SUBJECT:
Vehicle registration fee surcharges: vehicle theft programs
DESCRIPTION:
This bill authorizes counties to increase from $1 to $2 vehicle
registration surcharges that they impose to fund vehicle theft
prevention, investigation, and prosecution programs, and it
deletes the 2018 sunset date on the authorization to impose
these surcharges.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law establishes a basic vehicle registration fee of
$46, plus a $23 surcharge for additional personnel for the
California Highway Patrol (CHP) for the new or renewal
registration of most vehicles. Existing law also authorizes
local agencies to impose separate vehicle registration fee
surcharges in their respective jurisdictions for a variety of
special programs, including until January 1, 2018, a $1
surcharge for a program to deter, investigate, and prosecute
vehicle theft. This surcharge is $2 for commercial vehicles.
In counties with populations of 250,000 or less, prosecutors may
use the resulting revenues also to prosecute crimes involving
driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and vehicular
manslaughter.
Existing law that took effect in January allows Los Angeles
County, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties to increase their
existing surcharge to $2 for noncommercial vehicles and to $4
for commercial vehicles to fund their programs to deter,
investigate, and prosecute vehicle theft.
A county board of supervisors must adopt a resolution to impose
this surcharge on every new or renewal vehicle registration
within the county. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
collects the surcharge and remits those fees, after deducting
its own administrative costs, to the State Controller. State
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law continuously appropriates these funds, which the State
Controller disburses to each participating county based on the
number of registered vehicles within that county.
Each quarter a participating county must submit to CHP a report
on the expenditures and activity of the program, and by August
31st every year each county must submit a report to the State
Controller that describes the fiscal year that just ended:
Total revenues received from the surcharge by the county;
Total expenditures by the county on eligible programs;
A summary of vehicle theft abatement activities and other
programs funded by the surcharge;
The total number of stolen vehicles recovered and their value;
The total number of vehicles stolen and a comparison to the
preceding fiscal year; and
Any unexpended surcharge revenues received.
The Controller may suspend collection of the fee if the local
agency is not reporting as required by law or is not expending
funds as authorized. The Controller annually reports to the
Legislature on this program.
This bill :
1.Authorizes any county that has imposed a $1 vehicle
registration surcharge for vehicle theft prevention to
increase that surcharge to $2 through a resolution its board
of supervisors adopts. These counties surcharge on commercial
vehicles would increase from $2 to $4 as well. The county
must submit this resolution to DMV at least six months prior
to the date DMV will begin collecting the $2 surcharge.
2.Deletes the January 1, 2018 sunset and thus makes permanent
the authorization to impose a $1 vehicle surcharge in counties
that have not imposed it and to increase it to $2 in counties
that have.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . SB 2139 (Davis), Chapter 1670, Statutes of 1990,
authorized counties to impose a $1 surcharge on vehicle
registrations to fund vehicle theft programs. Since then, the
cost of these programs has far outpaced the increased number
of registered vehicles on the road.
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Forty-seven counties impose the surcharge, using the revenue
to conduct probation searches, fund interagency sting
operations, "chop-shop" investigations, and other vehicle
theft prevention programs. Statewide county activities funded
by the surcharge led to the recovery of more than 130,000
stolen vehicles in 2012.
According to CHP data, the 25 counties that recovered the most
stolen vehicles in 2012 all fund vehicle theft abatement
activities with the surcharge. With the exception of two
counties, all of the top 40 counties for vehicle theft
recovery are counties with a
surcharge-funded prevention program. This bill would allow
these counties to increase their surcharges to keep pace with
rising costs and deletes the sunset date on the authorization
to impose the surcharge.
2.Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties . Last
year, AB 1404 (Feuer), Chapter 775, authorized the counties
of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego to increase
their $1 vehicle registration surcharges for vehicle theft
prevention to $2 through a resolution its board of supervisors
adopted. These counties must submit this resolution to DMV
at least six months prior to the date DMV will begin
collecting the $2 surcharge. None of these counties has yet
to exercise this new authority.
3.All other counties ? This bill allows a county that has a $1
surcharge in place to increase that surcharge to $2, with
commercial vehicles going from $2 to $4. It does not,
however, allow a county with no surcharge in place to impose a
$2 surcharge. Rather such a county would have to first impose
a $1 surcharge and then at a later date increase it to $2. A
more efficient and fairer approach would be to allow any
county to impose either a $1 or $2 surcharge. The author will
offer amendments in committee to allow any county to impose
either a $1 or $2 surcharge along with the corresponding
surcharge on commercial vehicles.
4.Vote of the people . The people passed Proposition 26 in
November 2010 and so amended the California Constitution to
require that any "change in statute which results in a
taxpayer paying a higher tax must be imposed by an act passed
by not less than two-thirds of all members elected to each of
the two houses of the Legislature." This bill does not result
in a taxpayer paying a higher tax but delegates to county
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boards of supervisors the authority to impose a higher
surcharge on vehicle registrations to fund a specific
government function. Ultimately, county counsels will have to
determine a vote threshold at the county level. So while this
bill is a majority vote measure in the Legislature, the local
action to increase the registration surcharge may be a
two-thirds vote of the electorate in a county.
RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 1324 (Skinner) authorizes the County of Alameda to increase
the surcharge from $1 to $2 that it imposes on vehicle
registrations in its jurisdiction to fund vehicle theft
prevention, investigation, and prosecution programs. Awaiting
hearing in this committee.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 47-25
Appr: 12-5
Trans: 10-6
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 5,
2013.)
SUPPORT: California Police Chief's Association
(co-sponsor)
California State Sheriffs' Association
(co-sponsor)
Alameda County District Attorney
Alameda County Sheriff's Office
California District Attorneys Association
California New Car Dealers Association
California State Association of Counties
Lassen County
Santa Barbra County Sheriff's Office
Shasta County Sheriff's Office
Yolo County Sheriff's Office
OPPOSED: California Taxpayers Association
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
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