BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 1355 (Runner) - Driver's licenses: veteran designation.
Amended: May 7, 2012 Policy Vote: T&H 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 24, 2012 Consultant: Mark McKenzie
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: SB 1355 would require the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) to include the designation "VETERAN" on a
driver's license or identification card issued to a veteran who
requests the designation and provides specified proof of
military service.
Fiscal Impact:
One-time costs to DMV, likely in the range of $1 million
(Motor Vehicle Account), to revise forms, and make computer
programming and driver's license (DL) and identification
(ID) card design changes to indicate veteran status.
Annual DMV staff costs of at least $800,000 (Motor Vehicle
Account) to collect information and applications in field
offices and to investigate applicants' veteran status.
Unknown annual fee revenue gains from veterans with
unexpired driver's licenses or identification cards who wish
to pay $29 for the veteran designation. (Motor Vehicle
Account). DMV estimates that most veterans would wait to
request the designation until their license or ID card is up
for renewal in order to avoid the additional fee.
Approximately 28,000 veterans would need to request
replacement of an unexpired license or ID card each year to
offset administrative costs.
Background: There are currently approximately 2 million veterans
in California. The Department of Defense (DOD) issues an
identification card to active members of the armed forces that
demonstrates current participation in the military. Upon
separation from active duty, the DOD issues DD Form 214 (Report
of Separation), a letter-sized document that contains
information normally needed to verify military service for
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benefits, retirement, employment, and membership in veterans'
organizations. From a practical standpoint, this form is
primarily used by those interacting with the federal Veterans'
Affairs system. More recently, however, an increasing number of
private organizations are offering veterans price discounts and
other benefits to veterans. The DD Form 214 could be used as a
way to prove veteran status, but the document is not routinely
carried because of its size and the personal data contained
therein.
This bill is intended to provide veterans with a more efficient
way to prove eligibility for certain educational, social, and
employment benefits than carrying DD form 214. According to the
policy committee analysis of a similar bill, 12 states in 2011
enacted laws to add a designation or insignia to driver's
licenses to identify a person's status as a veteran.
Proposed Law: SB 1355 would require DMV to include the
designation "VETERAN" on a driver's license or ID card issued to
a veteran who requests the designation and provides proof of
military service and honorary discharge, as determined by DMV.
The bill would authorize DMV to collect a fee of $29 for
replacement of an unexpired driver's license or ID card with a
new license or ID card that includes the veteran's designation.
DMV could not charge an additional fee for the issuance of an
original or renewal license or ID card that includes the
veteran's designation.
Related Legislation: AB 1725 (Lowenthal) would require DMV to
print an appropriate insignia upon the driver's license or
identification card of a veteran, upon request, and authorize
DMV to charge a fee sufficient to cover its administrative costs
to produce the driver's license or identification card. AB 1725
has been referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee
Suspense File.
Staff Comments: Based on experience in other states, DMV
estimates that 72 percent of California veterans who hold a
driver's license or ID card would request the veteran's
designation. The estimated $800,000 in DMV staff costs noted
above (approximately 15 PY equivalents) include both field
office staff time to interface with applicants and photocopy
documentation and DMV headquarters staff time to perform
administrative tasks associated with verifying veteran status
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with the California Department of Veterans Administration (CDVA)
or the DOD. These costs would also include the releasing the
license for mailing and notification to those whose status could
not be verified. Since DD Form 214 documents are not secure and
fraudulent documents may be readily obtained online, DMV would
need to establish a protocol for verification.
Staff notes that the Legislature included language in last
year's budget that requires DMV to update driver's license
application forms to provide a space for an applicant to
indicate whether he or she served in the armed forces and
whether they would like to receive information on available
veterans benefits. Data collected from willing veterans is
shared with CDVA in order to identify Californians eligible for
state and federal benefits. CDVA will contact those veterans
who wish to be contacted, and, using the standard process to
verify eligibility with the DOD, will make available any and all
eligible benefits. SB 1355 would require DMV to make additional
changes to the application forms to allow veterans to indicate
whether they would like the designation on their license or ID
card.
DMV also indicates that the programming process for including a
veteran's designation on the DL and ID cards would be difficult
and costly. In addition to standard programming to put a field
on the DL and ID application screens, the system would have to
be designed to allow the application to be held as incomplete
while the status verification process occurs and data files can
be transferred to CDVA or DOD for verification. In addition to
the programming costs, DMV would also need to make design
changes to the cards themselves, which would be costly and
challenging because the designs were recently updated and there
is no available room for a "VETERAN" designation.