BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 192 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 6, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair AB 192 (Travis Allen) - As Amended April 20, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Transportation |Vote:|16 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 AB 192 Page 2 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 AB 192 Page 3 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. AB 192 Page 4 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 Page 5