BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1539
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 16, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
AB 1539 (Hayashi) - As Amended: April 10, 2012
SUBJECT : Specialized license plates
SUMMARY : Establishes an antibullying license plate.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes findings and declarations regarding the bullying of
young people who are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender (LGBT) community.
2)Requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), in
consultation with the State Department of Education, to design
and make available for issuance specialized license plates
that contain a message that promotes the policy of the state
that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and
bullying based on actual or perceived characteristics and
disability, gender, gender identity, nationality, race or
ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or association with a
person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived
characteristics.
3)Requires this to be known as the "Antibullying License Plate
Program."
4)Requires the plates to have a design or contain a message that
publicizes or promotes a state agency or policy and meets
design criteria required of other specialized license plates.
5)Allows vehicle owners, upon payment of the additional fees
specified below, to apply for and be issued a set of
antibullying license plates and allows the plates to be issued
in a combination of numbers or letters, or both, requested by
the owner or lessee of the vehicle.
6)Requires, in addition to the regular fees for an original
registration or renewal of registration, an additional fee of
$50 to be paid for the issuance of an antibullying plate, $40
for its renewal, $15 for its transfer, $35 for substitutes,
and $65 for the conversion of existing specialized plates to
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antibullying plates.
7)Requires the Department of Education to transfer sufficient
monies to DMV to initiate the Antibullying License Plate
Program.
8)Requires DMV, after deducting its administrative costs, to
deposit the additional revenue derived from the issuance,
renewal, transfer, and substitution of the specialized license
plates into the Antibullying Program Account, which this bill
creates.
9)Requires the California State Controller to allocate to the
Department of Education upon appropriation by the Legislature,
the money in the account for expenditure in support of state
or local antibullying programs administered by the Department
of Education or through grants to local school districts.
10)Requires the Department of Education to report to the
Legislature on or before June 30 of each year on its use and
expenditure of the money in the Antibullying Program Account,
beginning one year after the initial issuance of antibullying
license plates.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Allows any state agency to apply to DMV to sponsor a
specialized license plate program.
2)Requires DMV to issue specialized license plates for that
program, if the agency complies with all statutory
requirements.
3)Prohibits DMV from establishing a specialized license plate
program for an agency until it has received not less than
7,500 paid applications for that agency's specialized license
plates.
4)Requires the agency to collect and hold applications for the
plates. Once the agency has received at least 7,500
applications, it must submit the applications, along with the
necessary fees, to DMV.
5)Prohibits advance payment to DMV of its estimated or actual
administrative costs associated with the issuance of a
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particular specialized license plate from constituting
compliance with the 7,500 application threshold requirement.
6)Requires funds accruing to a sponsoring state agency from the
sale of specialized license plates to be expended exclusively
for projects and programs that promote that agency's official
policy, mission or work.
7)Allows specialized license plates to feature a distinctive
design, decal, or distinctive message in a two-inch by
three-inch space to the left of the plate's numerical sequence
and a space not larger than 5/8 inch in height below the
numerical series.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Prior to 2007, any new special interest license plate
required specific legislative authorization. This practice was
held to be unconstitutional in that the Legislature approved
some of the plates, and rejected others, using no standardized
or objective criteria for those decisions. Subsequently, as a
result of AB 84 (Leslie), Chapter 91, Statutes of 2006, an
administrative process has been established wherein DMV will
issue specialized license plates when they are sponsored by a
state agency, the plate's message and the revenues it generates
support that agency's program, and at least 7,500 paid
applications have been received. The 7,500-application
threshold was previously put into statute for special interest
license plates and was arrived at in an attempt to assure that
DMV's startup costs would be fully covered by the portion of the
registration fee surcharge that is directed to the department
and to avoid a proliferation of different types of plates, which
can be troublesome from a law enforcement perspective.
This bill would bypass the AB 84 process in order to establish
an antibullying license plate. Besides effectively waiving the
7,500 paid application threshold, it would put the Legislature
back in the business of picking and choosing specific license
plate messages, an activity the courts have frowned upon.
In justifying the need for this bill, the author notes that
"bullying may be one of the most under-reported safety problems
in American schools and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
(LGBT) youth may be at an increased risk compared to their
peers. Children who are affected by bullying have an in
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increased risk of depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide,
health complaints, lower academic achievement, missing school,
and dropping out of school. The 2009 National School Climate
Survey of 7,261 middle and high school students found that
nearly nine out of 10 LGBT students experienced harassment at
school during the prior year and nearly two-thirds felt unsafe
because of their sexual orientation. Nearly a third of LGBT
students skipped at least one day of school because of safety
concerns."
The Association of Regional Center Agencies has expressed a
concern that "The bill only speaks to bullying on the basis of
sexual orientation or gender identity," but should include
people with disabilities "to make clearer the aim to provide
antibullying education that is more comprehensive in scope."
(On page 2, line 18, this bill does, in fact, reference
disability as one of the bases of bullying.)
Related legislation : AB 1658 (Gatto) would require DMV to
produce "replica" license plates upon receiving 7,500 paid
applications. That bill is currently in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee. AB 610 (Solorio) would allow the
Veterinary Medical Board an additional 12 months to accumulate
the required 7,500 applications for the establishment of a Pet
Lover's license plate. AB 610 currently on the Senate floor.
AB 1815 (Emmerson) of 2010, would have allowed the establishment
of a NASCAR plate, with the proceeds benefitting the Bureau of
Automotive Repair's vehicle repair and retirement program. That
bill passed the Assembly but died in the Senate Committee on
Transportation and Housing without being heard.
Suggested Committee amendment : While inserting the Legislature
back into the process of establishing specialized plates is
troubling, this bill at least ties its proposed plate to an
existing state agency and program, consistent with the AB 84
regime established by the Legislature. Waiving the 7,500
application threshold (which predates even AB 84), however, is
more troublesome in that it would invite any number of similar
efforts on behalf of license plate proposals that have been
unable to reach that level of popularity. If the Committee is
inclined to approve the concept of an antibullying plate, it may
wish to include a requirement for 7,500 paid applications before
the envisioned plate program is actually established. (Of
course, receiving 7,500 applications would presumably allow the
Department of Education to sponsor this licensed plate without
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the need for legislation.)
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093