BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 192
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Date of Hearing: May 6, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
192 (Travis Allen) - As Amended April 20, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the State Coastal Conservancy (SCC) to apply
to the DMV for a specialized license plate program. Net revenues
from these plates, upon appropriation by the Legislature, are to
be allocated by the SCC to fund specified purposes related to
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protection and preservation of coastal resources.
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 SCC 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 the SCC 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 the SCC, 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
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for those decisions. Pursuant to AB 84 (Leslie)/Statutes of
2006, the DMV will issue specialized license plates when
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. The author introduced AB 192 in an attempt to
establish a funding source to support coastal protection
efforts and raise coastal awareness through education and
outreach efforts. The author notes that this bill will
"continue to protect access to California's coasts, educate
more people about the history and recreational value of our
beaches, and promote the protection of the coast for everyone
to be able to enjoy it for generations to come."
3)Related Legislation. AB 63 (Bonilla), pending on this
committee's Suspense file, 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 270 (Nazarian), also pending on this committee's Suspense
file, requires the Department of Public Health to apply to the
DMV to sponsor a diabetes awareness, education, and research
specialized license plate program.
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AB 932 (Daly and Gipson), also on today's committee agenda,
requires the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to apply
to the DMV to sponsor specialized license plates, using the
officially-licensed logos of California's professional sports
teams, with net revenues from these plates to be used by DPR's
Office of Grants and Local Services to fund local parks are
recreation programs.
4)Prior Legislation. 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. Last year 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
AB 192
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