BILL ANALYSIS �
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2321
Author: Gomez (D), et al.
Amended: 4/24/14 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 10-0, 6/26/14
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Beall, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso,
Lara, Liu, Roth, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-0, 8/14/14
AYES: De Le�n, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Gaines
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 5/27/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Special-interest license plates: Office of
Emergency Services
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the Office of Emergency Services
(OES) to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to
establish a special-interest license plate that promotes
awareness of domestic violence and sexual assault.
ANALYSIS : Any state agency, including the Department of
Health Care Services, may sponsor a special-interest license
plate pursuant to AB 84 (Leslie, Chapter 454, Statutes of 2006).
Under AB 84, the DMV may issue new special-interest license
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plates only on behalf of state agencies and only provided that
for each state agency:
The license plate has "a design or contains a message that
publicizes or promotes a state agency, or the official policy,
mission, or work of a state agency." The design shall also be
confined to the left of and below the numerical series (i.e.,
no full plate designs allowed).
The state agency submits 7,500 applications and accompanying
fees to DMV for the license plate. The state agency has 12
months to collect these applications and fees, but it can
extend that to a maximum of 24 months if it notifies and
offers to refund fees to those who applied during the first 12
months. Once a plate is issued, DMV stops issuing that plate
for the agency if the number of plates drops below 7,500.
In addition to the usual registration and license fees, DMV
charges the following additional fees for specialized license
plates: $50 for the initial issuance, $40 for annual renewal,
and $15 to transfer to another vehicle. DMV deducts its
administrative costs from the revenues generated. The net
revenues derived from a specialized license plate are then
available upon appropriation for the sponsoring state agency to
expend exclusively on projects and programs that promote the
state agency's official policy, mission, or work.
A sponsoring state agency may not spend more than 25% of its
license plate funds for administrative, marketing, and
promotional costs associated with the plate, and it must submit
an annual accounting report to DMV.
This bill:
1.Requires OES to apply to DMV pursuant to AB 84, to sponsor a
domestic violence and sexual assault awareness license plate
program.
2.Directs the revenues derived from this license plate, after
paying DMV's costs, to the California Domestic Violence
Prevention Fund, which the bill creates to fund the Family
Violence Prevention Program.
Background
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Special-interest license plates . Historically, the Vehicle Code
required DMV to issue, upon legislative authorization, a
special-interest license plate bearing a distinctive design or
decal of a sponsoring organization to any vehicle owner that
pays specified fees, provided that the sponsoring organization
met certain conditions. These conditions included that the
sponsor of a special-interest license plate had to be a
nonprofit organization and had to collect 7,500 applications and
fees for a special license plate in order to pay DMV's costs of
creating a new plate, which are approximately $375,000 or 7,500
applications times the $50 fee.
In 2004, a federal court decision, Women's Resource Network v.
Gourley, E.D. Cal 2004, F.Supp.2d, 2004 U.S. Dist., invalidated
these provisions of the Vehicle Code. In the Gourley decision,
the court declared California's special-interest license plate
statutes unconstitutional because they violated the First
Amendment right to freedom of speech. The court specifically
objected to the Legislature "picking and choosing" special
license plates that private organizations propose, in essence
promoting the message of some organizations while denying this
right to others. The court did allow the 10 special-interest
license plates existing at the time of its decision to remain in
use and available to new applicants, as they are today.
In response to the court decision, AB 84 established the current
specialized license plate program to provide a forum for
government speech that promotes California's state policies. AB
84 excludes private organizations from seeking specialized
license plates as a forum for private speech and thus addresses
the court's objection. Newly created plates and the revenue
they generate must publicize or promote a state agency or the
official policy, mission, or work of a state agency.
Comments
The author introduced this bill to compel OES to sponsor a
special-interest license plate in order to promote awareness of
domestic violence and sexual assault and to provide additional
funding for the OES-administered Family Violence Prevention
Program. This program provides financial and technical
assistance to local domestic and family violence centers that
are implementing family violence programs around the state.
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The author notes that domestic violence and sexual assault are
crimes that millions of women, men, and children are victims of
across the state of California. The California Coalition
Against Sexual Assault reports that on average 24 people per
minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an
intimate partner in the United States. The author introduced
this bill to help to provide proper attention and funding to
sexual violence, a severe public health problem.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Estimated OES costs of $25,000 in 2014-15, for plate design
and approximately $50,000 in 2015-16 for 1/2 personnel year of
staff time to collect the initial 7,500 applications and fees
for the establishment of the plate program (General Fund).
These costs could continue into 2016-17 if the requisite
applications and fees are not collected within the first year
and OES applies to DMV for a
12-month extension.
Assuming 7,500 pre-paid applications are collected by OES, DMV
will incur initial administrative costs of $135,000 to process
the applications, and an additional $440,000 in programming
and other implementation costs, likely in 2016-17 or 2017-18,
partially offset by pre-paid application fees of $375,000,
leaving a net first-year cost of approximately $200,000 (Motor
Vehicle Account). These net costs will be reimbursed in the
following fiscal year by registration renewal fees from
holders of the domestic violence and sexual assault awareness
plates. All ongoing costs thereafter will be fully offset by
fees from renewals and issuance of new plates.
Upon full implementation of the proposed plate program, there
will be ongoing revenues of approximately $300,000 annually
available for OES' Family Violence Prevention Program (based
on 7,500 plate renewals). These revenues may be higher to the
extent additional domestic violence and sexual assault
awareness plates are issued.
SUPPORT : (Per the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee
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analysis of 4/24/14--Unable to reverify at time of writing)
Partnership to End Domestic Violence
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 5/27/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gorell,
Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez, Holden,
Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Perea, John A. P�rez, V.
Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gordon, Patterson, Quirk-Silva, Vacancy
JA:e 8/17/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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