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