BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 1259 Page 1 Date of Hearing: June 14, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS Jacqui Irwin, Chair SB 1259 (Runner) - As Amended April 21, 2016 SENATE VOTE: 36-0 SUBJECT: Vehicles: toll payment: veterans SUMMARY: Exempts vehicles registered to a veteran and displaying a specialized veterans license plate, as specified, from payment of a toll or related fines on a toll road, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane, toll bridge, toll highway, a vehicular crossing, or any other toll facility. EXISTING LAW: 1)Makes every vehicle using a toll bridge or toll highway liable for any tolls or other charges that may be prescribed and prohibits a person from evading or attempting to evade the payment of those tolls or charges. 2)Exempts from toll payment properly marked emergency vehicles that are displaying exempt California license plates and either traveling to or returning from urgent or emergency response. SB 1259 Page 2 3)Requires that if a vehicle is found by automated devices (including cameras), visual observation, or otherwise to have evaded a toll, the toll operator must issue a notice of toll evasion violation to the registered owner of the vehicle within 21 days of the violation. If the toll operator is unable to obtain accurate information concerning the identity and address of the registered owner within 21 days of the violation, it shall have an additional 45 calendar days to issue the notice. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: 1)Unknown, likely minor revenue losses to various local tolling and regional entities that operate toll facilities. (local funds) 2)Unknown, likely minor foregone state revenues, to the extent the Department of Transportation develops and operates state toll facilities. (State Highway Account) COMMENTS: According to the author the need for this bill is as follows: Veterans who qualify for honorary plates have been wounded, disabled, held prisoner or have demonstrated extraordinary valor in combat. This measure simply provides a small measure SB 1259 Page 3 of recognition to California veterans who have served our country with particular sacrifice and distinction. Almost 48% of California veterans are age 65 or older. The general decline in the number of U.S. veterans is particularly evident among those who have received combat related honors. Requirement that the veteran be in the vehicle: Broadly generalizing, there is a strong sentiment in the veterans community that veterans honors belong only to the veteran; monetary benefits are also often provided to spouses and family members of veterans, though this is not a bright line test. Obviously the existing license plates allow for non-veteran drivers to use the specially plated car, but the bill adds an additional benefit at toll locations. Should anyone with permission from the veteran to drive the car be able to take advantage of the benefit? Use of the plate to be the determining factor as opposed to the requisite status: SB 1259 Page 4 The bill would require that veterans who are otherwise eligible but who do not have the special plate apply for and obtain the plate in order to be eligible for the toll benefit. It seems likely, given the increasingly automated toll road and bridge systems,that the implementation will include some kind of transponder. To reduce costs of the proposal and the barriers to entry for veterans, why does the bill require both the plate and the transponder? There is an existing procedure for the disabled veteran placard (somewhat analogous to a transponder) which might be adoptable and provide a penalty structure as well. What is the rationale behind the bill? Is there a problem that the bill is solving or is the bill in recognition of veterans service and sacrifice or both? What problem is the bill solving? The statutory language provides a bright line test for who is eligible for the proposed benefit, but it also, somewhat arbitrarily, divides veterans, deeming some worthy of the benefit and not others, and it is not clear that there is any need for this other than to provide a bright line and cost reduction. Particularly with regard to disabled veterans, the definition in MVC of disabled veteran for the most part ties the disability to impaired mobility and related issues; the disabled veteran plate is analogous to the disabled placard and generally allows mobility impaired people to park more conveniently to help accommodate their disability. Does this test, focused SB 1259 Page 5 primarily on mobility make sense in the case of a toll free benefit to veterans who drive or are driven by someone else through a toll crossing? REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION: Support Antelope Valley Veterans Community Action Coalition China Lake Alliance James Randall Wooderson (Individual) Operation All The Way Home Opposition Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Analysis Prepared by:John Spangler / V.A. / (916) 319-3550 SB 1259 Page 6