BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 2068
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: portantino
VERSION: 5/21/12
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 26, 2012
SUBJECT:
License plates: legislators and members of Congress
DESCRIPTION:
This bill increases the fees that a current or retired
legislator or a member of Congress must pay in order to have
special license plates for his or her vehicle denoting that
status.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law establishes a basic vehicle registration fee of
$46, plus a $23 surcharge for additional personnel for the
California Highway Patrol (CHP). A vehicle owner may request
an environmental license plate (ELP) when registering his or her
vehicle. An ELP is a personalized license plate (sometimes
referred to as a "vanity plate") that DMV issues in a
combination of letters, or numbers, or both, that the vehicle
owner selects.
ELP fees are $48 for issuance of the plate, $38 for renewal, $38
for duplicate plates, and $38 for transfer. Existing law
provides that revenue derived from these fees shall be deposited
in the California Environmental License Plate Fund. Initially
authorized in 1979, the ELP Fund supports a variety of state
activities that have some environmental connection.
In addition, since 1979, a registered owner of a vehicle who is
a current or retired member of the California Legislature or
who is a current member of Congress may apply to the Department
of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for special license plates for his or
her vehicle that denote this status. The current or retired
legislator or the member of Congress must pay $12 for issuance
and $10 to move these plates to another vehicle. Current law
does not impose an additional annual renewal fee for these
plates. Revenues from these license plates accrue to the Motor
AB 2068 (PORTANTINO) Page 2
Vehicle Account, which funds DMV and CHP.
This bill increases the fees for issuance, renewal, and transfer
to match the fees charged for personalized license plates.
Thus, a current or retired legislator or current member of
Congress will pay $48 for issuance, $38 for annual renewal, and
$38 for transfer to another vehicle of these plates.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author introduced this bill because the current
fees for legislative and congressional license plates are not
sufficient to cover the administrative and other costs of the
license plates. He chose the amounts in this bill to equal
those that the general public pays to personalize license
plates under the state's ELP program.
2.Other specialized plates . Over the years, legislation has
created numerous specialized license plates primarily as
fundraising mechanisms for programs ranging from local veteran
services to the Lake Tahoe Conservancy. To raise funds, a
vehicle owner pays extra charges, typically around $50 for
issuance and $40 for annual renewal, to have these plates on
his or her vehicle. Revenues from these extra fees then help
support the relevant program.
State law also provides for various specialized license plates
that provide recognition for military service rendered or for
a particular occupation. Service recognition plates include
Purple Heart Medal recipient plates, Congressional Medal of
Honor plates, and Gold Star Family plates, all of which
involve no extra fee for the plate and in some cases result in
an exemption from the basic vehicle registration fee.
Occupational plates include those for legislators, members of
Congress, press photographers, and consular officials. These
plates impose a varied range of extra fees depending on the
legislation that provided for their creation.
3.Fees too high . DMV reports that there are less than 500
legislative and congressional license plates currently issued.
The $12 fee to receive such plate dates from their
authorizing legislation in 1978, and today this fee is
insufficient to pay DMV's costs associated with the plates.
One reason the author gives for this bill is to ensure that
DMV's costs for these plate are covered by the fess.
Increasing the issuance fee four-fold and imposing an annual
AB 2068 (PORTANTINO) Page 3
renewal fee, as this bill proposes, would generate revenues
far in excess of DMV's costs.
Increasing the issuance fee from $12 to $18 would be
sufficient to cover DMV's costs for legislative and
congressional license plates. According to technical
information provided by DMV, such an $18 fee would cover DMV's
administrative costs to issue the plates, as well as the
minor, incidental costs it incurs when renewing, transferring,
or duplicating such plates. In general, it costs DMV no more
to renew a standard license plate than a personalized plate,
but existing law imposes the $38 renewal fee because
personalized plates are a fundraiser for environmental
programs. The committee may therefore wish to amend this bill
to increase the fee for issuance of a legislative or
congressional license plate to $18 in order to make this fee
sufficient to cover the cost of the plate.
4.Making legislative and congressional plates a fundraiser .
Revenues that come in from extra fees paid for legislative and
congressional plates currently go into the Motor Vehicle
Account, which funds the administration of the state's law
related to the registration and licensing of vehicles and the
enforcement of traffic laws, primarily through DMV and CHP.
In contrast, revenues from the extra fees paid on personalized
plates flow into the ELP fund to support various environmental
programs. Because of the small number of legislative and
congressional plates, the total revenue will be a small amount
even given the fee increases in this bill. Still the amount
will far exceed the costs of the plates, thus making these
plates a fundraiser but without a program to support. As an
alternative to the amendment in comment #3 above, the
committee may wish to amend this bill to direct revenues it
raises that are in excess of DMV's costs from congressional
and legislative plates to the ELP fund in order to support
environmental programs.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 69 - 0
Appr: 16 - 1
Trans: 12 - 0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
AB 2068 (PORTANTINO) Page 4
Wednesday, June 13,
2012)
SUPPORT: None received.
OPPOSED: None received.