BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 1550
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Bonilla
VERSION: 5/14/12
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 12, 2012
SUBJECT:
Veterans license plates
DESCRIPTION:
This bill increases the fees required to issue, renew, and
personalize veterans license plates.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law requires that, in order to register a vehicle in
California, the registered owner pay a registration fee of $46,
a $23 surcharge for additional personnel for the California
Highway Patrol, various locally-imposed fees, and a vehicle
license fee (VLF) equal to 0.65% of a vehicle's value based on
purchase price depreciated according to a statutory schedule. A
vehicle owner may pay additional fees of $48 for issuance and
$38 for renewal to personalize the characters on his or her
vehicle's license plates.
In addition, any registered owner of a vehicle may apply to the
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for veterans' organization
license plates for his or her vehicle. Veterans' organizations
plates bear a distinctive design that includes the words
"honoring veterans" along the bottom of the plate and includes a
decal on the left side of the plate for one of over 100
sponsoring veterans' organizations, such as the American Legion,
101st Airborne Division, or the National Guard. In addition to
the above fees, for veterans plates a vehicle owner must pay:
$30 for the initial issuance of the plates and decals;
$40 to personalize the plates; and
$30 annually for each renewal that includes continued
display of the plates (whether personalized or not) and
decals.
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After paying DMV's costs associated with veterans plates,
revenues derived from these fees go to county veterans service
offices.
This bill :
1.Increases the fees for veterans plates as follows:
$50 for issuance,
$78 for personalization, and
$40 for renewal.
1.Permits the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a
distinctive design of veterans plates and the associated
decals to honor all veterans or veterans who served in a
particular war or armed conflict.
2.Permits any vehicle owner to apply to DMV for a veterans plate
with a decal that honors all veterans or veterans who served
in a particular war or armed conflict. Further, this bill
allows a veteran to apply for a veterans plate decal that
indicates his or her service in a particular war or armed
conflict.
3.Requires DMV, by July 1, 2013, to issue a distinctive decal to
any veteran for his or her veterans plate that recognizes his
or her veteran status in, or honoring veterans of, a
particular war or armed conflict. In lieu of such a decal,
DMV must offer a "yellow ribbon/support our troops decal" to
veterans.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author introduced this bill to provide
additional revenue from the veterans plate to county veterans
service offices (CSVOs) so that they can continue to provide
and expand their services to all veterans and their families.
She notes that the Legislature has not changed the fees for
the veterans plate since 1992. By bringing these fees for the
veterans plate into line with DMV's other specialized plates,
she argues that this bill will augment the funding the state
provides to the counties for its share of CVSO costs.
The author notes also that when legislation established the
veterans plate, the state created over 100 different decals,
most for small military units or veterans' organizations, but
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has not updated or added to the decals since the end of the
Vietnam War. This bill asks the Department of Veterans
Affairs to broaden the appeal of the plate to veterans by
creating decals for recent and ongoing wars. New decals allow
purchasers the ability to specify the veterans they are
honoring, which may result in higher sales.
2.Funding of CVSOs . The author points out that the state has an
agreement with counties to pay 50 percent of CVSOs' costs;
that agreement is embodied in codified legislative intent
language in the Military and Veterans Code. When that
agreement was made, 50% equaled $5 million, but she notes that
the state has not funded CVSOs at this rate. In 2009, SB 419
(Committee on Veterans Affairs), Chapter 183, updated the
Military and Veterans Code to express the intent of the
Legislature to increase the annual 50 percent amount that
CVSOs are entitled to receive to $11 million. Since passage of
SB 419, CVSOs have received only $2.6 million annually. In
2010, the veterans plate raised total revenue of $614,000.
3.Impact on sales . Existing law permits the Department of
Veterans Affairs to modify the distinctive designs of veterans
plates and the associated decals but prohibits DMV from
issuing the new plates or decals until it has issued all
existing inventories of plates and decals. This authority
resulted in a new design of the plate becoming available last
year that changed the words along the bottom of the plate from
"veteran" to "honoring veterans" and thus broadened the appeal
of this license plate. In addition, last May, DMV made the
plate available on its web site.
In less than one year and likely as a result of these two
changes, the total number of veterans plates issued increased
to 26,850 - an increase of 2,774. Those who purchased the
plate during this timeframe made this decision to acquire the
plate based on the extra fees in current law. This bill
increases those extra fees and would come on top of the $12
increase in the basic vehicle registration fee that the
Legislature included in last year's budget. Because of its
fee increases, this bill could decrease the growth in or even
the total number of veterans plates issued and renewed. If
this drop is large, it could result in a loss of total revenue
from issuance and renewal of the plates.
Assembly Votes:
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Floor: 71 - 3
Appr: 15 - 0
Trans: 14 - 0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 6,
2012)
SUPPORT: American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees
American Legion - Department of California
AMVETS - Department of California
California Mental Health Directors Association
California State Commanders Veterans Council
Vietnam Veterans of America - California State
Council
OPPOSED: None received.