BILL ANALYSIS �
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2450
Author: Logue (R) and John Perez (D), et al.
Amended: 4/21/14 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: Department of
Public Health
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the Department of Public Health to
apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to establish a
special-interest license plate that promotes awareness of kidney
disease.
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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AB 2450
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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 requires the Department of Public Health to apply to
DMV pursuant to AB 84 to sponsor a kidney disease awareness
license plate program.
Comments
History of 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
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AB 2450
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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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Estimated DPH 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 DPH applies to DMV for a 12-month extension.
Assuming 7,500 pre-paid applications are collected by DPH, DMV
would incur initial administrative costs of $135,000 to
process the applications, and an additional $440,000 in
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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 cost of approximately $200,000 (Motor
Vehicle Account). These net costs would be reimbursed in the
following fiscal year by registration renewal fees from
holders of the kidney disease awareness plates. All ongoing
costs thereafter would be fully offset by fees from renewals
and issuance of new plates.
Upon full implementation of the proposed plate program, there
would be ongoing revenues of approximately $300,000 annually
for use by DPH for kidney disease awareness purposes (based on
7,500 plate renewals).
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/14/14)
Da Vita/HealthCare Partners
National Kidney Foundation
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author introduced this bill to
compel the Department of Public Health to sponsor a
special-interest license plate in order to promote awareness of
kidney disease. Noting that one in nine American adults have
kidney disease and that 90,000 die annually from it, the author
points out that kidney disease comes with no symptoms, making it
difficult to detect until it is quite advanced. Once a kidney
fails, then a person requires either dialysis or a transplant.
Currently 120,000 Americans are awaiting a new kidney. The
author introduced this bill to raise people's awareness of
kidney disease.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 05/27/14
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,
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Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gordon, Patterson, Quirk-Silva, Vacancy
JA:nl 8/16/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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