BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     AB 270


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          Date of Hearing:  April 15, 2015


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS


                                 Jimmy Gomez, Chair


          AB  
          270 (Nazarian) - As Amended March 16, 2015


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          Urgency:  No  State Mandated Local Program:  NoReimbursable:  No


          SUMMARY:


          This bill requires the Department of Public Health (DPH) to  
          apply to the DMV to sponsor a diabetes awareness, education, and  
          research specialized license plate program, and to deposit net  
          proceeds from the program into the newly-established Diabetes  








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          Awareness Fund.


          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 DPH 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 DPH 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 DPH for diabetes awareness and  
            education, 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  








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            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  
            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 has introduced this bill to increase the  
            state's effort regarding diabetes awareness. Recent studies  
            cited in a 2014 California State Auditor (CSA) report found  
            that the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in  
            California has jumped 50 percent from 2001 to 2012. DPH's  
            spending on diabetes prevention, however, has declined over  
            time due to reductions in its federal funding. In 2012-13-the  
            most recent year for which nationwide data is  
            available-California had the lowest per capita funding for  
            diabetes prevention in the nation.



          3)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.  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. 










                                                                     AB 270


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          Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081