BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 257 Hearing Date: 4/28/2015
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|Author: |Bates |
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|Version: |4/6/2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Randy Chinn |
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SUBJECT: Vehicles: Gold Star Family license plates
DIGEST: This bill requires the Department of Motor Vehicles
(DMV) to issue personalized Gold Star License Plates.
ANALYSIS:
Personalized license plates
Since 1979, state law has allowed a vehicle owner, when
registering a vehicle, to request a personalized license plate
(sometimes referred to as a "vanity plate" or called an
"environmental license plate" in state law) that the DMV issues
in a combination of letters or numbers, or both, that the
vehicle owner selects. Vehicle owners must pay additional fees
for the issuance, renewal, transfer, and duplicates of a
personalized plate. Revenue derived from these fees supports a
variety of state activities that have some environmental
connection.
Gold Star Family specialized license plates
Existing law provides for a specialized license plate program,
under which the DMV may issue new special-interest license
plates only on behalf of state agencies. A state agency's
special-interest license plate design must publicize or promote
the agency, its work, its official policy, or its mission, and
be confined to the left of and below the numerical series (i.e.,
no full plate designs allowed).
Prior to the DMV issuing a new special-interest license plate,
SB 257 (Bates) Page 2 of ?
the state agency must submit 7,500 applications and fees to the
DMV for the license plate. In addition to the usual vehicle
registration fees, these fees include additional charges for
specialized license plates to fund the work of the state agency.
The additional fees for the first 7,500 applications cover the
DMV's costs to establish the license plate.
Existing law specifically allows the California Department of
Veterans Affairs (CDVA) to sponsor a Gold Star Family
specialized license plate in the absence of 7,500 paid
applications, provided that the CDVA raises sufficient funds
through private and public donations to cover the DMV's costs to
establish this license plate. The CDVA collected sufficient
donated funds, and DMV began issuing Gold Star Family license
plates in November 2010.
To receive Gold Star Family license plates for a vehicle, the
vehicle's registered owner must present proof from either the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense
showing that a family member who was in the Armed Forces of the
United States was killed while on active duty. Further, the
vehicle owner must show proof satisfactory to the CDVA of one of
the following relationships to the person killed while on active
duty:
Widow or widower
Biological parent, adoptive parent, stepparent, or foster
parent
Biological child, adoptive child, or stepchild
Sibling or half-sibling
Grandparent
Grandchild
Existing law exempts Gold Star Family license plates from the
additional fees for special-interest license plates and for
personalized plates. The law also requires that the DMV issue
the plates in a sequential series. Therefore, the DMV may not
issue these as personalized license plates.
This bill requires the DMV to issue personalized Gold Star
Family license plates (e.g., not in sequential series) upon
payment of $49. The fees shall be deposited into the Motor
Vehicle Account. Once those fees have covered the DMV's cost of
implementing the personalization program, all additional fees
shall be deposited into the Veterans Service Office Fund.
SB 257 (Bates) Page 3 of ?
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of bill. The author states that Gold Star Family
license plates pay homage to and remind passersby of the noble
sacrifices made by both the fallen veterans and their
families. Immediate family members who have lost a loved one
should not be subject to the arbitrary restriction of
prohibiting the personalization of these license plates when
trying to honor their fallen family member.
2)In the beginning. SB 1455 (Cogdill), Chapter 309, Statutes
of 2008, authorized the CDVA to sponsor the Gold Star Family
license plate even without 7,500 paid applications for the
plate. The fees accompanying these applications would have
covered DMV's costs to establish the plate. Instead, SB 1455
allowed CDVA to raise private and public donations, and when
DMV deemed those sufficient to cover its startup costs, then
DMV would start production of the plate. During negotiations
on that bill, DMV staff indicated that the costs of
establishing the plate would be significantly lower if DMV
issued the plate solely in sequential order rather than as
personalized plates. To reduce the amount of funds that CDVA
would need to raise, SB 1455 included the provision allowing
DMV to issue sequential plates only. This bill would remove
that provision, thereby causing DMV to incur additional costs
now to modify its system to provide for personalized Gold Star
Family license plates.
3)Nothing personal. Current law allows for several different
specialty license plates. Most, such as the Former American
Prisoners of War plate and the Purple Heart Recipient plates,
do not allow personalization.
4)No windfall. In 2014, the DMV estimated its cost to offer
personalized Gold Star Family license plates at about
$377,000. At $49 apiece, it will take an additional 7,700 of
these plates to cover the DMV's costs. Since November 2010,
when the Gold Star Family license plates were first made
available, 733 have been issued, virtually unchanged from last
year.
Related Legislation:
SB 1282 (Knight; 2014) - removed the requirement that Gold Star
SB 257 (Bates) Page 4 of ?
Family license plates be issued sequentially. The bill was
approved by this committee
11-0 and was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday,
April 22, 2015.)
SUPPORT:
None received
OPPOSITION:
None received
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