BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 1323
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          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  








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            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  








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          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 
           








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            Opposition 
           
          None on file 

           
          Analysis Prepared by  :   Manny Leon / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093