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)
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|COMMITTEE VOTE: |8-5 |(August 28, 2012) |RECOMMENDATION: |concur |
|(TRANS.) | | | | |
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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
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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).
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
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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.
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
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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 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: 0005722