BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: ab 610
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: solorio
VERSION: 5/27/11
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: July 5, 2011
SUBJECT:
Special interest license plates
DESCRIPTION:
This bill authorizes the creation of new special interest
license plates with applications and fees from 2,500 vehicle
owners for the plate, plus private or public donations to cover
the remaining cost of creating the new license plate.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law provides for a specialized license plate program,
under which DMV may issue new special interest license plates
only on behalf of state agencies provided that for each state
agency:
The license plate has "a design or contains a message
that publicizes or promotes a state agency, or the official
policy, mission, or work of a state agency." The design
shall also be confined to the left of and below the
numerical series (i.e., no full plate designs allowed).
The state agency submits 7,500 applications and
accompanying fees to DMV for the license plate. The state
agency has a maximum of 24 months to collect these
applications and fees. Once a plate is issued, DMV stops
issuing that plate for the agency if the number of plates
drops below 7,500.
Plate revenues are used "exclusively for projects and
programs that promote the state or local agency's official
policy, mission, or work." These funds are deposited into
the Specialized License Plate Fund and are continuously
appropriated to the agency sponsoring the plate.
Existing law defines state agency broadly to mean "a state
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office, officer, department, division, bureau, board, or
commission, or any other state body or agency."
In addition to the usual registration and license fees, DMV
charges the following additional fees for specialized license
plates: $50 (original), $40 (renewal), $15 (transfer), and $35
(license substitute) and deducts its administrative costs from
the revenues generated. A sponsoring state agency may not spend
more that 25 percent of its license plate funds for
administrative, marketing, and promotional costs associated with
the plate, and it must submit an annual accounting report to
DMV.
To date, DMV has issued no plates under this law.
This bill permits a state agency to sponsor and DMV to issue a
specialized plate under the above rules if, rather than 7,500
applications and accompanying fees, the state agency collects
and submits 2,500 paid applications plus sufficient donations to
cover DMV's startup costs for the issuance of the specialized
plate.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose of the bill . The author introduced this bill at the
request of the Social Compassion in Legislation organization,
which since June 2010 in concert with the California
Veterinary Board has been promoting sales of the Pet Lover's
Plate in an effort to raise additional funds for the spay and
neuter trust fund to distribute grants to eligible agencies
throughout the state. The sponsor reports that it and the
Veterinary Board "are encountering significant difficulty in
meeting the current threshold for pre-sales and fear this
great cause will go unfunded."
The sponsor states that the law requiring 7,500 paid plates
"has chilled new plates and thus prevented much needed revenue
from being generated for human services, animal welfare
services, state parks, and many other important causes."
Supporters believe that the bill will provide a benefit to
local governments as the Veterinary Medical Board has promised
to distribute revenue raised from its plate to cities and
counties for spay and neuter programs.
2.A worthwhile investment ? The 7,500 applications and fees that
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a state agency must collect under existing law results in
$375,000 that then pays the DMV's costs to establish and issue
a new plate featuring the design of the sponsoring state
agency. This bill would allow a sponsoring state agency
instead to remit $125,000 from fees and $250,000 from other
donations. In future years, those original 2,500 plates each
incur a $40 fee to renew, and so would generate $100,000 a
year, some of which could go to pay DMV's on-going
administrative costs and 25 percent of which the sponsoring
agency may use to promote sales of the plate. This would net
less than $75,000 in funds raised, an amount that seems hardly
worth the state's effort and that certainly pales in
comparison to the ability of the sponsoring agency to raise
$250,000 in donations to initiate the plate. In addition, one
must question the viability of a statewide fundraising program
that is unable to sign up 7,500 of the over 30 million vehicle
owners in California within a two-year period. The committee
may wish to consider whether lowering the 7,500 paid plate
applications threshold to 2,500 will result in sufficient
additional funds raised to warrant the administrative efforts
of state agencies, including the DMV.
3.History of special interest license plates . Historically, the
Vehicle Code has required DMV to issue, upon legislative
authorization, a special interest license plate bearing a
distinctive design or decal of a sponsoring organization to
any vehicle owner that pays specified fees and that is
displayed in place of regular license plates, provided that
the sponsoring organization met certain conditions. These
conditions included that the sponsor of a special interest
license plate had to collect 7,500 applications and fees for a
special license plate in order to pay DMV's costs of creating
a new plate, which are approximately $375,000 or 7,500
applications times the $50 fee.
In 2004, a federal court decision, Women's Resource Network v.
Gourley, E.D. Cal 2004, F.Supp.2d, 2004 U.S. Dist.,
invalidated those provisions of the Vehicle Code, when the
court declared them unconstitutional because they violate the
First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The court
specifically objected to the Legislature "picking and
choosing" special license plates that private organizations
propose, in essence promoting the message of some
organizations while denying this right to others. The court
did allow the ten special interest license plates existing at
the time of its decision to remain in use and available to new
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applicants.
In response to the court decision, AB 84 (Leslie), Chapter
454, Statutes of 2006, established the current specialized
license plate program, which this bill amends. The
Legislature created this program to provide a forum for
government speech that promotes California's state policies
and excludes private organizations from seeking specialized
license plates as a forum for private speech, and thus
addressed the court's objection. To date, no license plates
have been issued under AB 84's specialized license plate
program due to an inability to collect 7,500 paid
applications.
SB 1455 (Cogdill), Chapter 309, Statutes of 2008, amended the
above existing law to allow the Department of Veterans Affairs
(DVA) to sponsor the Gold Star Family specialized license
plate in the absence of 7,500 paid applications, provided DVA
raises sufficient funds through donations to cover DMV's costs
to establish the license plate. Only relatives of members of
the United States Armed Forces who were killed in the line of
duty are eligible for this special license plate. Those
eligible for the plate do not pay the extra fees for issuance
and renewal of the Gold Star plate that other holders of
special interest license plates pay, because this plate does
not function as a fundraiser. DMV issued the first Gold Star
license plate last year and currently has issued 272 of these
plates.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 65-7
Appr: 13-4
Trans: 14-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 29,
2011)
SUPPORT: Social Compassion in Legislation (sponsor)
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Bay Area Open Space Council
City of Long Beach
City of Los Angeles
Hon. Pam Slater-Price, District 3 Supervisor, San
Diego County
Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association
AB 610 (SOLORIO) Page 5
PAW PAC
Take Me Home
OPPOSED: None received.