BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1404
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1404 (Feuer and Davis)
As Amended August 9, 2012
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(May 16, 2011) |SENATE: |22-16|(August 23, |
| | | | | |2012) |
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(vote not relevant)
Original Committee Reference: ED.
SUMMARY : Allows several counties to increase the surcharge
from $1 to $2 that they impose on vehicle registrations in their
respective jurisdictions to fund vehicle theft prevention,
investigation, and prosecution programs.
The Senate amendments :
1)Delete the prior contents of the bill.
2)Permit the Counties of Los Angeles, San Diego and San
Bernardino to increase their $1 vehicle registration
surcharges for vehicle theft prevention to $2 if the increase
is adopted by their boards of supervisors by resolution.
3)Require, in those counties that elect to increase the $1 fee
to $2, that the existing $2 vehicle registration surcharge for
commercial vehicles be raised to $4.
4)Require the counties to submit these resolutions to the
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) at least six months prior
to the date DMV begins collecting the increased surcharge.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Allows counties, by resolution of the county board of
supervisors, to impose a $1 fee to be paid at the time of
registration or renewal of registration of every vehicle
registered to an address within that county, except trailers
and those vehicles expressly exempted from payment of
registration fees. The fees, after deduction of DMV's
administrative costs are paid quarterly to the California
State Controller (Controller).
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2)Requires all commercial motor vehicles registered in those
counties to pay an additional service fee of $2.
3)Appropriates the funds continually, without regard to fiscal
years, for the administrative costs of the Controller, and for
disbursement by the Controller to each participating county,
based upon the number of vehicles registered, or whose
registrations are renewed, to addresses within that county.
4)Requires money allocated to a county to be expended
exclusively to fund programs that enhance the capacity of
local police and prosecutors to deter, investigate, and
prosecute vehicle theft crimes. In any county with a
population of 250,000 or less, the money must be expended
exclusively for those vehicle theft crime programs and for the
prosecution of crimes involving driving while under the
influence of alcohol or drugs, or both, or vehicular
manslaughter, or any combination of those crimes.
5)Prohibits this money from being expended to offset a reduction
in any other source of funds, or for any purpose not
authorized under this statute.
6)Requires each participating county to submit a quarterly
expenditure and activity report to the designated statewide
Vehicle Theft Investigation and Apprehension Coordinator in
the California Highway Patrol (CHP).
7)Requires participating counties to issue a fiscal year-end
report to the Controller that includes a detailed accounting
of the funds received and expended in the immediately
preceding fiscal year, including specified information on
expenditures.
8)Suspends the fee for one year in any county that fails to
submit the report.
9)Requires the Controller annually to prepare and submit to the
Legislature revenue and expenditure summary for each
participating county that includes the total revenues received
by each county, the total expenditures by each county, and the
unexpended revenues for each county.
10)Sunsets all of these provisions on January 1, 2018.
AB 1404
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AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill dealt with the licensure of
attorneys by the State Bar.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, all administrative costs to DMV and the State
Controller's Office will be fully recovered from fee revenues
collected. Additionally, there will be potential revenue gains
of approximately $7.2 million for Los Angeles County, $2.5
million for San Diego County, and $1.6 million for San
Bernardino County if increases to vehicle surcharges are
approved.
COMMENTS : This bill is substantially similar to AB 1768
(Davis), which failed in the Assembly Transportation Committee
7-4 (eight votes needed for passage) in April. AB 1768 would
have allowed for a $3 fee and applied only to Los Angeles
County.
SB 2139 (Ed Davis), Chapter 1670, Statutes of 1990, authorized
counties to impose a $1 surcharge on vehicle registrations to
fund vehicle theft programs. Since then, the cost of these
programs has far outpaced the increased number of registered
vehicles on the road.
Forty-seven counties impose the surcharge, including Los Angeles
County, where, in 1993, the Board of Supervisors imposed a $1
fee to create a vehicle theft program called the Taskforce for
Regional Auto-theft Prevention (TRAP).
TRAP is a multi-agency task force that investigates, prosecutes,
and deters vehicle theft and fraud on a coordinated and
cooperative basis. The author and sponsors report that TRAP has
been highly successful in combating vehicle theft and fraud by
focusing on organized vehicle theft rings, "chop shops,"
international auto theft rings that steal vehicles and ship them
to other countries, individuals who obtain vehicles by fraud,
and other forms of vehicle theft.
Los Angeles County reports that since 1993, TRAP has made
approximately 9,300 arrests, recovered over 23,000 vehicles
worth nearly $400 million, and prosecuted over 4,000 cases of
automobile theft. In recent years TRAP has had to reduce the
number of personnel assigned to the program due to increases in
operating, fuel, and equipment costs. The sponsor states that
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these reductions have negatively impacted TRAP's ability to
effectively combat auto theft in Los Angeles County and notes
that in 2004 TRAP employed 71 personnel to combat auto theft at
a cost of $7.3 million. This year, TRAP employed only 29 people
at a cost of $7.2 million. As time goes on, in the
not-so-distant future the TRAP team will not have sufficient
funding to do its job. This bill would give Los Angeles County
the authority to double the funds it has for the TRAP program.
Proposition 26 requires that any "change in statute which
results in a taxpayer paying a higher tax must be imposed by an
act passed by not less than two-thirds of all members elected to
each of the two houses of the Legislature." This bill does not
result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax but delegates to the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors the authority to impose
a higher surcharge on vehicle registrations to fund a specific
government function. Ultimately, the Los Angeles County Counsel
would have to determine a vote threshold at the county level.
So while this bill is a majority vote measure in the
Legislature, the local action to increase the registration
surcharge may require a two-thirds vote of the electorate in a
county.
The current contents of this bill have not been heard by any
Assembly committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
FN: 0004773