BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 257
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Date of Hearing: August 19, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 257
(Bates) - As Amended August 17, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill:
1)Expands the Gold Star Family specialized license plate
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program, which currently allows only for sequential plates, to
allow eligible vehicle owners to obtain personalized plates,
commencing January 1, 2017.
2)Requires that those seeking personalized plates per (1) pay
the $50 initial plate fee plus the $48 initial fee for
personalization, in addition to ongoing license renewal fees,
and directs this revenue to the Motor Vehicle Account (MVA)
until the DMV's upfront costs to produce the personalized
plates are recovered. After DMV's costs are recouped, the
revenue would be deposited into the Veterans Service Fund.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)One-time special fund costs of approximately $400,000 for DMV
to establish a personalized Gold Star Family license plate
program, including computer programming changes and updating
forms.
2)The above costs are to be reimbursed from license application
and renewal fees paid by program participants and by any
donations for the program received by the California
Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet), as allowed under
existing Gold Star Family program. Given the relatively small
universe of eligible program vehicle owners and the inherent
uncertainty of donation levels, full reimbursement to the DMV
could take a very long time, after which revenue would accrue
to the Veterans Service Fund.
COMMENTS:
1)Specialized License Plates. Prior to 2007, any new special
interest license plate required specific legislative
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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)Gold Star Family Plates. SB 1455 (Cogdill), Chapter 309,
Statutes of 2008, authorized the Department of Veterans
Affairs (CalVet) to sponsor a Gold Star Family specialized
license plate program. Eligibility for these plates is limited
to vehicles owned by family members of members of the U.S.
Armed Forces who were killed in the line of duty. An applicant
for these plates is exempt from paying the usual fees for the
issuance and renewal of specialized license plates.
Instead of requiring the 7,500 pre-paid applications for a
specialized license plate program, SB 1455 authorized CalVet
to solicit public and private donations for deposit into a
special fund to cover DMV's administrative costs to establish
the Gold Star Family plate program. As a cost-saving measure
to get the program started, the plates may only be issued in a
sequential series, thus they may not be issued as personalized
plates, referred to in statute as "environmental license
plates." The DMV began issuing Gold Star Family license plates
in November of 2010 and has issued 733 plates to date. There
are currently 658 registered vehicles with Gold Star Family
plates.
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3)Purpose. The author states that Gold Star Family members who
have lost a loved one who gave their life in defense of our
country should not be subject to an arbitrary restriction when
trying to honor their fallen family member with a Gold Star
Family specialized license plate.
4)Concern. Unlike all other specialized and environmental
license plate programs, this bill requires the DMV, and the
MVA, to incur significant costs up front, with no timetable
for full reimbursement.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081