BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 1323 Page 1 Date of Hearing: June 26, 2014 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair SB 1323 (Lieu) - As Amended: June 30, 2014 SENATE VOTE : Not relevant SUBJECT : Specialized license plates: Pet Lover's License Plate Program SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to deposit fees collected for a specialized license plate issued under the Pet Lover's Specialized License Plate Program into the Pet Lover's Specialized License Plate Fund (PLF), as specified. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires DMV to deposit the fees collected under the Pet Lover's Specialized License Plate Program sponsored by the Veterinary Medical Board (VMB) into the PLF. 2)Specifies the funds collected by any successor specialized license plate program sponsored by VMB are to be deposited into the PLF. 3)Establishes the PLF in the State Treasury. 4)Directs funds deposited in the PLF to be continuously appropriated to VMB for purposes of funding grants to providers of no-cost or low-cost animal sterilization services. 5)Requires VMB to consider recommendations from the California Spay and Neuter License Plate Fund Inc. in determining how to award grant funds. 6)Includes and urgency provision. EXISTING LAW : 1)Establishes specialized license plate programs and requires DMV to issue specialized license plates to a sponsoring state agency that meets specific requirements. 2)Requires DMV to, in addition to the regular fees paid for an SB 1323 Page 2 original or renewal of vehicle registration, charge specified fees for the issuance, renewal, or transfer of specialized license plates. 3)Requires DMV to deduct the administrative cost to implement the specialized license plate program from the abovementioned additional fees and directs the remainder of the fees to be deposited in the Specialized License Plate Fund. 4)Specifies that fees deposited in the Specialized License Plate Fund are to be appropriated by the Legislature and allocated to each sponsoring agency in proportion to the amount that is collected for the sponsoring agency's specialized license plate program. 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. Specialized license 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. A state agency must first submit an initial application to DMV requesting sponsorship of a specialized license plate. The process then provides the sponsoring state agency 12 months to obtain the required 7,500 paid applications and must be received by the sponsoring 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. Furthermore, fees collected from the specialized license plate SB 1323 Page 3 programs are first used to cover DMV program administrative costs with the remaining additional funds being deposited into the Specialized License Plate Fund and subject to appropriation by the Legislature. DMV currently administers 12 specialized license plate programs, including the Pet Lover's specialized license plate program. AB 610 (Solorio), Chapter 9, Statutes of 2012, provided VMB an additional 12 month period to meet the 7,500 application threshold as required by existing law. VMB obtained the necessary applications over the additional 12 months and began issuing Pet Lover's specialized license plates in September of 2013. As of May 31, 2014, DMV has issued 8,070 Pet Lover's specialized license plates and generated $94,844. This bill requires DMV to deposit additional revenue generated from the Pet Lover's specialized license plate program into the newly created PLF and to be continuously appropriated to VMB. The author introduced this bill in order to streamline the funding process for the Pet Lover's plate program and to keep revenue flowing to programs that fund animal sterilization services. Currently a timing issue exists between when DMV started collecting fees for the Pet Lover's specialized license plate program and when DMV has the authority to allocate the funds to VMB. Due to this timing issue, VMB would receive program funds no earlier than July 2015. The author notes the provisions in this bill are necessary to ensure that the funds meant to go to no-cost or low-cost spay and neuter programs actually reach their intended purpose in a timely manner and do not get delayed in the state budget process. Previous legislation: AB 610 (Solorio), Chapter 9, Statute of 2012, provided an additional 12 months for the collection of the 7,500 paid applications necessary for VMB to successfully sponsor a the Pet Lover's specialized license plate. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support Veterinary Medical Board State Humane Association of California SB 1323 Page 4 Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by : Manny Leon / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093