BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2303
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 4, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2303 (Holden) - As Amended April 14, 2016
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|Policy |Transportation |Vote:|16 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires Caltrans to apply to the DMV to sponsor a
bicycle pathway specialized license plate program and allocates
net revenues generated by these specialized license plates to
the Active Transportation Program.
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
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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 DHCS 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 Caltrans 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. The bill specifies that the
license, to the extent feasible, should be identical to the
license plate design used by DMV between 1982 and 1987, as
described.
3)Potential ongoing revenue to the Active Transportation
Program, subject to appropriation by the Legislature.
4)Current law requires that specified additional funds related
to personalizing a specialized license plate must be deposited
into the Environmental License Plate Fund. This bill instead
directs all revenues to the Active Transportation Account,
after deducting administrative costs. This would result in
the diversion of any revenues associated with personalization
from the Environmental License Plate Fund to the new account.
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)The ATP was created by SB 99 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review), Chapter 359, Statutes of 2013, by consolidating
existing federal and state programs and funding, including the
federal Transportation Alternatives Program, the state Bicycle
Transportation Account, and the federal and state Safe Routes
to School programs. AB 101 (Assembly Budget Committee),
Chapter 354, Statutes of 2013, amended the 2013 Budget Act to
in part appropriate $129.4 million for the ATP. Through this
bill, the author intends to provide more resources to this
oversubscribed program.
3)Related Legislation. Currently there are six other bills in
the legislative process that would direct a state agency to
sponsor a specialized license plate for a specific cause.
Three bills were all held on Suspense last year in Senate
Appropriations: AB 63 (Bonilla) to raise money for school
safety, AB 270 (Nazarian) to raise money for diabetes
awareness, and AB 932 (Daly) to raise money for local parks
and recreation grant programs. AB 1884 (Harper) to raise
money for mental health awareness was passed by this Committee
on March 14, 2016, with a 16-0 vote, and is currently awaiting
a hearing in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. AB 2131
(Maienschein) on today's committee agenda, would raise money
for local food banks. AB 2253 (Grove), also on today's
committee agenda, would raise money for veterans' programs.
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4)Prior Legislation. Since 2011, 12 bills have been introduced
establishing specialized license plate program, of which four
have been chaptered: Salton Sea restoration [AB 1096
(Nestande), Chapter 353, Statutes of 2014], kidney disease
research [AB 2450 (Logue), Chapter 359, Statutes of 2014],
breast cancer awareness [AB 49 (Buchanan), Chapter 351,
Statutes of 2014], and domestic violence prevention [AB 2321
(Gomez), Chapter 358, Statutes of 2014].
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081