BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 1429 (Nielsen) - Vehicles
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|Version: March 28, 2016 |Policy Vote: T. & H. 11 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 16, 2016 |Consultant: Mark McKenzie |
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This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 1429 would expand eligibility for the "year of
manufacture" license plate program to include vehicles that are
1980 model-year or older.
Fiscal
Impact:
One-time Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) programming costs
of up to $100,000. (Motor Vehicle Account)
Minor ongoing DMV administrative costs to process applications
would be offset by additional applications fees. (Motor
Vehicle Account)
Background: Existing law authorizes DMV to issue "year-of-manufacture"
(YOM) license plates for vehicles with a model year of 1969 or
SB 1429 (Nielsen) Page 1 of
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earlier and commercial vehicles or pickup trucks with a model
year of 1972 or older. The program enables the owners of
eligible vehicles to replace their reflectorized license plates
with plates that were in use when the vehicle was manufactured.
Under the program, a vehicle owner acquires and installs the
appropriate set of license plates that correspond to the
vehicle's model year, if the DMV deems the set serviceable,
legible, and authentic. An additional fee of $45 is charged for
the issuance of these historical plates and renewal costs an
additional $10.
Early California license plates had many different plate
background and character color combinations, but in 1963 all
existing plates were replaced with yellow characters on a black
background. These plates were issued to both passenger and
commercial vehicles through 1969, but DMV continued to issue
yellow-on-black plates for commercial vehicles and pickup trucks
until 1972. DMV began issuing yellow-on-blue plates beginning
in 1970, but switched to blue-on-white plates in the 1980s.
Under the current YOM program, most participating vehicles
display black-on-yellow plates issued from 1956-62 and the
yellow-on-black plates issued thereafter.
The DMV also issues new reflectorized yellow-on-black plates to
any vehicle under the Legacy License Plate Program, upon payment
of specified fees, pursuant to AB 1658 (Gatto), Chapter 720 of
2012.
Proposed Law:
SB 1429 would expand the current YOM license plate program to
authorize the owner of a vehicle that is a 1980 or older
model-year vehicle to participate in the program.
Staff
Comments: Participants in the YOM program pay the standard
vehicle registration fee, in addition to an initial YOM
application fee of $45 and an annual renewal fee of $10. DMV
programming is required to flag the individual records of YOM
license plate holders in order to collect the additional renewal
fees. Programming costs are not expected to exceed $100,000.
There are currently 32,324 participants in the YOM program, and
it is unknown how many additional requests for YOM plates this
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bill would generate. The increased application fees would
offset the costs for processing applications under the expanded
program, and for any other minor ongoing administrative costs.
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