BILL ANALYSIS
AB 425
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 13, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Mike Eng, Chair
AB 425 (Cook) - As Introduced: February 23, 2009
SUBJECT : Vehicle registration reinstatement: military personnel
SUMMARY : Exempts National Guard and US Armed Forces members
from fees required to be charged for reinstating vehicle
registrations. Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that the fee normally charged by the Department of
Motor Vehicles (DMV) for reissuing a vehicle registration that
has been suspended, canceled or revoked, does not apply to a
California National Guard or the United States Armed Forces
member who was serving on active duty outside California in a
wartime military conflict at the time that his or her vehicle
registration was suspended, canceled, or revoked.
2)Requires any person seeking such an exemption to submit a copy
of his or her official military orders when requesting
registration reinstatement.
EXISTING LAW : Requires DMV, before reinstating a suspended,
canceled, or revoked vehicle registration, to collect a fee
sufficient to pay the cost of the reissuance, in addition to any
other required fees.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The author points out that military personnel
receiving deployment orders have little time to prepare. Should
their auto insurance lapse during their absence, their vehicle
registration could be suspended. Upon their return, they would
either have to present proof of planned non-operation or pay a
reinstatement fee ($14) in order to restore the vehicle's
registration.
Correspondence between DMV and a constituent of the author's
indicates that such occurrences could be avoided by the vehicle
owner filing an Affidavit of Non-Use form with DMV. It does not
seem reasonable, however, to expect deploying military personnel
to either be aware of this option or to have the time or
wherewithal to take the necessary steps. This bill would
AB 425
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resolve that issue for such persons.
It should be noted that the program to electronically verify
registrants' insurance status was only initiated in 2005 and was
initially administered by a private contractor. The program is
now being transitioned to DMV staff administration in a lengthy
and difficult process. The transition requires a great deal of
programming in order to move a large number of records, to
accept updates electronically, and to generate notices. The
private vendor administering the program currently fields almost
12,000 telephone calls each day, making call center capability a
challenge. Consequently, DMV may be unable to easily
accommodate this bill's provisions until that transition is
substantially complete. An operative date for this bill of July
1, 2010, or perhaps even January 1, 2111, could help assure its
successful implementation.
Related legislation : In the 2007-08 Legislative Session, AB 418
(Saldana) would have exempted vehicles owned by deployed
National Guard members from vehicle registration and vehicle
license fees, AB 11 (DeVore of 2007) and AB 2557 (DeVore of
2008) would have established a special license plate for
National Guard members. Each of these bills died in fiscal
committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Legion, Department of California
California Professional Firefighters
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093