BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                             Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
                            2015 - 2016  Regular  Session

          AB 63 (Bonilla) - School safety programs:  funding
          
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          |Version: May 28, 2015           |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0, T. & H. |
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          |Urgency: No                     |Mandate: No                     |
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          |Hearing Date: August 17, 2015   |Consultant: Mark McKenzie       |
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          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. 







          Bill  
          Summary:  AB 63 would require the Department of Education (CDE)  
          to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to sponsor a  
          school violence prevention specialized license plate program, as  
          specified.


          Fiscal  
          Impact:  
           Estimated CDE costs of $25,000 in 2015-16 for plate design,  
            and up to $50,000 in 2016-17 for staff time to collect the  
            initial 7,500 applications and fees for the establishment of  
            the plate program (General Fund).  These costs could continue  
            into 2017-18 if the requisite applications and fees are not  







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            collected within the first year and CDE applies to DMV for a  
            12-month extension.  There could be additional costs if CDE  
            executes a marketing strategy to attract applicants.  If the  
            license plate program is implemented, CDE would incur ongoing  
            administrative costs of approximately $119,000.

           Assuming 7,500 pre-paid applications are collected by CDE, DMV  
            would incur initial administrative costs of $135,000 to  
            process the applications, and an additional $440,000 in  
            programming and other implementation costs, likely in 2017-18  
            or 2018-19, partially offset by pre-paid application fees of  
            $375,000, leaving a net cost of approximately $200,000 (Motor  
            Vehicle Account).  These net costs would be reimbursed in the  
            following fiscal year by registration renewal fees from  
            holders of the school violence prevention plates.  All ongoing  
            costs thereafter would be fully offset by fees from renewals  
            and issuance of new plates.

           Upon full implementation of the proposed plate program, there  
            would be ongoing revenues of approximately $300,000 annually  
            for use by CDE for school violence prevention programs (based  
            on 7,500 plate renewals, and not accounting for administrative  
            costs). 

           Diversion of funding for personalizing a school violence  
            prevention plate from the California Environmental License  
            Plate Fund to the School Violence Prevention Fund.  See staff  
            comments. 


          Background:  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.  Current law, as enacted by AB 84  
          (Leslie), Ch. 454/2006, authorizes any state agency to sponsor a  
          special interest license plate, and apply to DMV to establish a  
          new license plate program after collecting at least 7,500  
          applications and accompanying fees and submitting them to DMV.   
          The applications must be collected within one year, with an  
          option to extend that timeframe by an additional year under  
          specified conditions.  The new specialized license plate must  
          have a design or contain a message that publicizes or promotes a  
          state agency, or the official policy, mission, or work of the  








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          agency.  

          In addition to the regular fees for an original or renewal  
          registration, existing law requires payment of the following  
          fees for the issuance, renewal, or transfer of the specialized  
          license plate: $50 for original issuance; $40 for renewal; $15  
          for transfer to another vehicle; and $35 for substitute  
          replacement plates.  Once a specialized license plate program  
          has been implemented, all additional fee revenues associated  
          with the plate, after subtracting DMV administrative costs, are  
          deposited into the Specialized License Plate Fund, and made  
          available to the sponsoring agency upon appropriation by the  
          Legislature for projects and programs that promote the agency's  
          official policy, mission, or work.  A sponsoring agency may not  
          spend more than 25 percent of its license plate fee revenues for  
          administrative, marketing, and promotional costs associated with  
          the plate.  If an applicant wishes to personalize a specialized  
          license plate, the following additional fees would apply: $48  
          for original issuance, $38 for renewal, and $38 for transfer to  
          another vehicle.  Any fees paid for personalization would be  
          deposited into the California Environmental License Plate Fund  
          for expenditure on various environmental protection purposes.

          Existing law establishes the School Safety Violence Prevention  
          Strategy Program for the purpose of promoting school safety and  
          violence prevention programs for grades K-7 in public schools.   
          The Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) is required to  
          award competitive grants to provide schools with personnel such  
          as counselors, social workers, nurses, and psychologists;  
          install on-campus communication devices; establish in-service  
          training program for school staff; establish cooperative  
          arrangements with local law enforcement agencies; or other  
          strategies for achieving school safety and prevention of  
          violence.  Additional funding to address school safety and  
          violence prevention was also available to school districts  
          through the School Safety and Violence Prevention Program  
          (school safety block grants).  Both of these programs were  
          implemented as school categorical programs. The 2009 Budget Act  
          imposed a 20% reduction for 39 categorical programs and gave  
          school districts the flexibility to use the funds for any  
          educational purposes.  The local control funding formula (LCFF),  
          enacted in 2013, eliminated most categorical programs and  
          integrated categorical program funds, including those for school  
          safety programs, into school districts' base grants.  These  








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          previous school violence prevention programs remain in statute  
          but are no longer specifically funded.


          Proposed Law:  
            AB 63 would require CDE to apply to DMV to sponsor a school  
          violence prevention license plate program pursuant to the  
          requirements of the specialized license plate program in  
          existing law.  The bill would require additional fees derived  
          from the plate program to be deposited into the School Violence  
          Prevention Fund, established by this bill.  Revenues would be  
          allocated to CDE, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to  
          carry out one or more purposes of existing specified school  
          violence prevention programs.  Funds would be available to both  
          charter and non-charter public schools.
          The bill also authorizes the Superintendent of Public  
          Instruction (SPI) to consult with the Board of State and  
          Community Corrections, the Department of Social Services, and  
          the Department of Public Health on school violence prevention  
          and intervention to carry out the purposes of specified existing  
          programs.




          Related  
          Legislation:  SB 544 (DeSaulnier), which was similar to this  
          bill, failed passage in the Assembly Education Committee in  
          2014.
          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 enacted.   
          Most recently, the following four bills were signed into law in  
          2014: AB 49 (Buchanan), Ch. 351/2014, for breast cancer  
          awareness; AB 1096 (Nestande), Ch. 353/2014, for Salton Sea  
          restoration; AB 2321 (Gomez) Ch. 358/2014, for domestic violence  
          prevention and sexual assault awareness; and AB 2450 (Logue),  
          Ch. 359/2014, for kidney disease awareness.


          There are three other specialized license plates pending in this  
          Committee:  AB 192 (Allen) would require the State Coastal  
          Conservancy to apply to the DMV to sponsor a coastal conservancy  
          awareness license plate program, and make specified changes to  








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          the Pet Lover's specialized plate program; AB 270 (Nazarian)  
          would require the Department of Public Health to apply to DMV to  
          sponsor a diabetes awareness specialized plate program; AB 932  
          (Daly) would require the Department of Parks and Recreation to  
          apply to DMV to sponsor a professional sports franchise license  
          plate program, as specified.




          Staff  
          Comments:  As noted above, any state agency may sponsor a specialized  
          license plate program and apply to DMV to issue the plates upon  
          collection of 7,500 pre-paid applications without legislative  
          action.  Rather than allow CDE to sponsor a plate at its  
          discretion, this bill would require the department to apply to  
          DMV to sponsor a school violence prevention plate program.

          As a sponsoring entity, existing law requires CDE to design a  
          plate, apply to DMV to sponsor a plate program, and collect  
          7,500 pre-paid applications within 12 months.  If the requisite  
          number of applications has not been reached within a year, CDE  
          has the option of either returning all fees and deposits to  
          applicants, or notifying DMV that it intends to continue  
          collection efforts to obtain the minimum 7,500 applications  
          within the subsequent 12 months.  If CDE elects to continue  
          collection efforts, it must contact applicants who submitted  
          applications and fees to determine whether they would prefer to  
          continue the application or have their deposits and fees  
          refunded.  Staff notes that only two of the 12 specialized plate  
          programs signed into law since 2000 have successfully met the  
          minimum threshold of 7,500 pre-paid applications.

          Staff estimates that CDE would incur initial costs of  
          approximately $25,000 in 2015-16 to design the school violence  
          prevention license plate and apply to DMV to sponsor the plate,  
          and additional costs of up to $50,000 in 2016-17 to collect  
          applications and fees.  If 7,500 applications have not been  
          received within 12 months of applying to DMV, CDE may incur  
          similar costs in 2017-18 if it chooses to apply for an  
          extension.  There could be additional costs to the extent CDE  
          implements a marketing strategy to attract applicants, although  
          that is not an explicit requirement in the bill or current law.   
          Staff notes that there is no requirement that CDE incur costs  








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          beyond the initial 12 month period if less than 7,500  
          applications have been collected.  If the program is fully  
          implemented, CDE indicates it would incur annual costs of  
          approximately $119,000 to administer the program.  This amount  
          is likely to exceed the specified maximum of 25 percent of plate  
          funds that may be used for administrative costs.  Costs in  
          excess of these amounts would be a General Fund expense.

          All DMV costs are contingent upon receipt of 7,500 pre-paid  
          applications, as specified above.  If the requisite number of  
          applications are not received within the specified timeframes,  
          the school violence prevention plate program would not be  
          implemented and there would be no further costs or revenues  
          derived from the bill.

          If the license plate program is implemented, it would generate  
          at least $300,000 in annual revenues for school violence  
          prevention programs (assuming the minimum 7,500 plate holders  
          paid a $40 renewal fee).  After deducting CDE's allowable  
          administrative costs, there would be very little funding  
          available for grants to schools.

          Existing law requires specified additional funds related to  
          personalizing a specialized license plate must be deposited into  
          the California Environmental License Plate Fund.  This bill  
          requires DMV to deposit all fees collected from the sale of the  
          school violence prevention plates into the School Violence  
          Prevention Fund, after deducting administrative costs.  This  
          would appear to result in the diversion of any revenues  
          associated with personalization from the Environmental License  
          Plate Fund to the new fund for expenditure by CDE.

          Staff notes that the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee  
          authored, and the Senate approved, SR 28 last year to declare a  
          moratorium on legislation to increase the number of specialized  
          plate types that DMV may issue until the Legislature can assess  
          the full and long-term impacts of the ongoing increase in  
          license plate types.  The resolution requested DMV to establish  
          a task force to study plate proliferation and make  
          recommendations to the Legislature and Governor by July 1, 2015.  
           That report is still pending, and the proposed moratorium has  
          apparently not prevented new plate proposals from moving forward  
          in the current Session.









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