BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 63 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair AB 63 (Bonilla) - As Amended April 22, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Education |Vote:|6 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | |Transportation | |16 - 0 | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to apply to the DMV to create a specialized license plate program to fund the purposes of the School Safety and Violence Protection Act. AB 63 Page 2 FISCAL EFFECT: 1)Potential one-time special fund costs of approximately $440,000 to DMV to establish the specialized license plate program, including computer programming changes and updating forms. Pursuant to current law, DMV will make computer programming and form changes only after program applications meet a 7,500-application threshold. Therefore, the DMV will incur these costs only if it receives enough applications to require the CDE to implement the program. The DMV will incur minor ongoing costs to continue issuing specialty license plates and renewals under the program. All of the DMV's initial and ongoing costs will be covered by a portion of the additional $50 fee paid for original specialized license plates and the additional $40 fee to renew such plates. 2)Minor costs to CDE to submit the program application and license prototype to DMV, design and print the license plate application, and collect and hold applications and fees until 7,500 applications are received. 3)Potential ongoing revenue to CDE for grants to school districts, from a portion of the additional fees for new and renewed specialty license plates generated after the funding requirements in (1) are satisfied. COMMENTS: 1)Specialized License Plates. Prior to 2007, any new special interest license plate required specific legislative authorization. This practice was held to be unconstitutional in that the Legislature approved some of the plates, and rejected others, using no standardized or objective criteria for those decisions. Pursuant to AB 84 (Leslie)/Statutes of 2006, the DMV will issue specialized license plates when AB 63 Page 3 sponsored by a state agency, the plate's message and resulting revenues support that agency's program, and at least 7,500 paid license applications have been received. The 7,500-application threshold attempts to assure that DMV's startup costs are fully covered, by the portion of the registration fee surcharge directed to the department, and to avoid a proliferation of different types of plates, which can be troublesome from a law enforcement perspective. 2)Purpose. Youth violence is a problem that has serious social, emotional, physical, and economic consequences. Bullying, which has been linked to youth homicides and suicides, is also on the rise in California. In fact, a recent survey administered by CDE found that one in three middle school and high school students in California report having been harassed or bullied at least once in the previous year. The author indicates that the state had provided categorical funding for grants to help raise awareness about and prevent violence, and improve school safety. With enactment of the local control funding formula, however, these grants are no longer in existence. AB 63 attempts to fund these violence prevention programs by creating a new and direct source of funding derived from the sale of youth violence prevention specialized license plates. 3)Prior Legislation. AB 544 (DeSaulnier) of 2014, a substantially similar bill, failed in Assembly Education due to lack of a motion. AB 63 Page 4 Over the past five years, 13 bills have been introduced directing a state agency to sponsor a specialized license plate for a variety of causes, and eight of these bills were passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor. Most recently, in 2014, the following four bills were enacted: AB 49 (Buchanan)/Chapter 351, for breast cancer awareness, AB 1096 (Nestande)/Chapter 353) for Salton Sea restoration, AB 2321 (Gomez)/Chapter 358, for domestic violence prevention, and AB 2450 (Logue), for kidney disease research. Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081