BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 932
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 6, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
932 (Daly) - As Amended April 8, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill 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
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sports teams. Net revenues from these plates, upon appropriation
by the Legislature, are to be used by DPR's Office of Grants and
Local Services to fund local parks are recreation programs.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Potential one-time special fund costs of approximately
$440,000 to DMV for each professional team that seeks, through
DPR, to participate in the specialized license plate program.
Pursuant to current law, DMV will make computer programming
and form changes only after program applications meet a
7,500-application threshold for each separate team plate.
Therefore, the DMV will incur these costs only if it receives
enough applications for each team's plate to require the DPR
to implement a program for that team. 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)Given that there could be several teams seeking to participate
in the program and that teams might elect to participate at
different times, DPR could incur annual costs of up to
$175,000 for at least two to three years for up to two
full-time staff to submit multiple program applications and
license prototypes to DMV, design and print the license plate
applications, and collect and hold applications and fees until
7,500 applications are received for each participating team.
The bill contains no provision to cover these administrative
costs.
3)Potential ongoing unknown revenue to DPR, for local parks and
recreation program, from a portion of the additional fees for
new and renewed specialty license plates generated after the
funding requirements in (1) are satisfied for each
participating team.
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COMMENTS:
1)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. 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. A report by the Resources for the Future found that
while parks have grown in popularity and demand, park spending
has remained relatively flat and actually decreased during the
past two economic recessions. Thus, the author asserts,
"California is home to millions of sports fans. This bill
provides an easy way for drivers to show their support for
their favorite sports team while simultaneously helping park
and recreational programs."
Currently, 25 states and Washington D.C. have implemented
specialized license plate programs in some form using
professional sport team logos. Revenues from these programs
have been used to fund programs such as, youth development,
homelessness, and academic scholarships. Overall, these
programs using professional team logos have been successful in
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raising revenue for various social programs.
3)Recommended Amendments. First, the bill should clarify that
DPR will apply to the DMV for a specialized license plate
program only for those teams that first inform DPR of their
desire to participate. It is staff's understanding that
Memoranda of Understanding will be signed between the
department and each participating team.
Second, it is staff's understanding that the net proceeds from
the license plate programs will be split evenly between DPR
and charities operated or supported by the respective
professional teams. This should be stated in the bill.
4)A Slippery Slope? Vehicle Code Section 5154 (added by AB 84
in 2006) states, "Specialized license plates issued under this
article shall have a design or contain a message that
publicizes or promotes a state agency, or the official policy,
mission, or work of a state agency." Displaying the logo of a
private sports franchise on a California license plate
obviously does not meet the criteria of Section 5154, and the
bill acknowledges this by notwithstanding the requirement of
this section. Could this departure from the current law's
standard lead to similar efforts in the future?
5)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
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DMV to sponsor a diabetes awareness, education, and research
specialized license plate program
6)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