BILL NUMBER: SB 773	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 7, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Allen

                        FEBRUARY 27, 2015

   An act to add Section 4024 to the Vehicle Code, relating to
vehicle registration.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 773, as amended, Allen. Vehicles: registration fraud: study.
   Existing law prohibits a person from driving, moving, or leaving
standing upon a highway, or in an offstreet public parking facility,
any motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, pole or pipe dolly, or
logging dolly, unless it is registered and the appropriate fees have
been paid, except as specified. Existing law makes it a felony for a
person who, with the intent to prejudice, damage, or defraud, alters,
forges,  counterfeit,   counterfeits,  or
falsifies a registration card or who utters, publishes, passes, or
attempts to pass, as true and genuine, a false, altered, forged, or
counterfeited registration card knowing it to be false, altered,
forged, or counterfeited.
   This bill would request the University of California to conduct a
study on motor vehicle registration fraud and failure to register a
motor vehicle, and would require the study to include specified
information, including  ,  quantification of the
magnitude of the problem, the costs to the state and local
governments in lost revenues, and recommended strategies for
increasing compliance with registration requirements. The bill would
require the Department of Motor  Vehicles,  
Vehicles and  the Department of the California Highway 
Patrol, and other state agencies, as requested by the University of
California, to fully cooperate with the University of California in
conducing the study   Patrol to provide specified
information to the University of California researchers who are
conducting the study  . The bill would request the University of
California to post a report of the study on its Internet Web site no
later than January 1, 2017.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (1) Motor vehicle registration fraud and failure to register a
motor vehicle  is   are  both illegal and
fundamentally unfair to the vast majority of Californians who comply
with registration requirements.  It robs   These
crimes rob  the state and local governments of millions of
dollars of revenues needed for vital purposes, such as transportation
projects, supporting the Department of the California Highway
Patrol, deterring auto theft, enforcing laws prohibiting driving
under the influence of alcohol or drugs, removing abandoned vehicles,
and many other socially desirable programs.
   (2) Motor vehicle registration fraud and failure to register a
motor vehicle also  has   have  significant
public health consequences and  contributes  
contribute  disproportionately to motor vehicle emissions
because many individuals committing registration fraud have gross
emitting vehicles and are deliberately circumventing the inspection
and maintenance program.
   (3) Motor vehicle registration fraud and failure to register a
motor vehicle also significantly  increases  
increase  insurance costs for law-abiding citizens.
   (4) It is in the public interest to have motor vehicle owners
comply with existing registration laws.
   (b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to encourage
motorists to register their vehicles in accordance with existing law.

  SEC. 2.  Section 4024 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read:
   4024.  (a) The University of California is requested to conduct a
study on motor vehicle registration fraud and failure to register a
motor vehicle. The study shall include all of the following:
   (1) Quantification of the magnitude of the problem.
   (2) The strategies being used by motorists to commit motor vehicle
registration fraud.
   (3) The reasons for the behaviors of motorists who commit fraud in
 registrations   registration  of, or 
who  fail to register  their,   , their
 motor vehicles.
   (4) The costs to the state and local governments in lost revenues.

   (5) Increases in air pollution.
   (6) Other costs  ,  and consequences of these
behaviors.
   (7) Recommended strategies for increasing compliance with
registration requirements. 
   (b) The Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of the
California Highway Patrol, and other state agencies, as requested by
the University of California, shall fully cooperate with the
University of California in conducing the study.  
   (b) The Department of Motor Vehicles shall share its existing
database of vehicle registration records with the University of
California researchers who are conducting the study. The Department
of the California Highway Patrol shall share information on their
efforts to combat registration fraud, including the CHEATERS program,
with the University of California researchers who are conducting the
study. 
   (c) The University of California is requested to post a report of
the study on its Internet Web site no later than January 1, 2017.