Senate Resolution No. 28

Introduced by Committee on Transportation and Housing (Senators DeSaulnier (Chair), Beall, Cannella, Gaines, Galgiani, Hueso, Lara, Liu, Pavley, Roth, and Wyland)

February 19, 2014

Senate Resolution No. 28—Relative to vehicle license plates.

WHEREAS, In 1937, the Legislature enacted statutes requiring
all motor vehicles operating upon the highways to display license
plates; and

WHEREAS, The Legislature created the license plate system
to make the ownership and registration status of the vehicle readily
identifiable, and, over the intervening decades, the Department of
Motor Vehicles worked to improve both the visibility and legibility
of the license plates it issued; and

WHEREAS, The number of different license plates the
Department of Motor Vehicles issues has increased significantly
over the decades to include different types of plates for different
types of vehicles, to the extent there are currently 47 different
license plate types in use in California; and

WHEREAS, Since the 1980s, various special interest groups
have persuaded the Legislature to create special interest license
plates to identify their particular affiliations or fund their individual
causes, which has further compounded the proliferation of license
plate types in use in California; and

WHEREAS, Vehicle license plates were not originally intended
to promote or advertise a particular cause or ideology, or to fund
the operations or projects of special interest groups or state
agencies; and

WHEREAS, Because of concerns that the configuration and
graphic components of various license plates have reduced the
legibility, recognizability, and usefulness to the public and law
enforcement agencies of license plates as a means of vehicle
identification and determination of registration status, and have
resulted in the denigration of public safety, the Senate Committee
on Transportation authored, and the Senate passed, Senate
Resolution 43 of 1994 to establish a moratorium on legislation to
increase the number of license plate types authorized for issuance
until the Legislature could assess the full and long-term impact of
the increase in license plate types, and until the Department of
Motor Vehicles, the Department of the California Highway Patrol,
the Department of Justice, and local law enforcement could form
a task force to study and make recommendations to the Legislature
and the Governor about the proliferation of license plate types
authorized for use in California; and

WHEREAS, The task force reported its findings and
recommendations in July 1995 and therein recommended that
California maintain the white reflectorized license plate with red
script “California” and blue alpha/numeric characters, reduce the
number of license plate types, and issue no additional special
interest license plates. These recommendations, however, noted
that if the Legislature determines that a compelling need exists to
authorize another special interest license plate, it should rigorously
adhere to design standards that include no full plate graphics,
confining the message to the left of and below the alpha/numeric
series, and specify visibility standards; and

WHEREAS, In the intervening 18 years, the Women’s Resource
Center sued the state, which resulted in the court enjoining the
state from creating additional special interest license plates for
nonprofit organizations; and

WHEREAS, The Legislature passed AB 84 (Leslie), Chapter
454 of the Statutes of 2006, to create an administrative process for
state agencies to create special interest license plates to promote
the mission of the agency; and

WHEREAS, Three state agencies have created special interest
license plates pursuant to the AB 84 process and the Legislature
has authorized through statute several additional special interest
license plates; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, That there
again be established a moratorium on legislation to increase the
number of license plate types that the Department of Motor
Vehicles is authorized to issue until the Legislature can assess the
full and long-term impact from the ongoing increase in license
plate types; and be it further

Resolved, That the Director of Motor Vehicles is requested to
establish a task force, whose members shall include representatives
from the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of the
California Highway Patrol, and local law enforcement agencies,
to study and make recommendations to the Legislature and the
Governor on the proliferation of license plate types authorized for
use in the state; and be it further

Resolved, That the special task force shall assess the cumulative
and potential future impact on vehicle identification and safety
from the increase in license plate configurations and recommend
to the Legislature and the Governor a comprehensive plan to ensure
the effectiveness of license plate types authorized for use in
California; and be it further

Resolved, That the results and recommendations of this task
force be submitted to the Legislature and the Governor no later
than July 1, 2015; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the Director of Motor Vehicles and the
Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, and to the author
for appropriate distribution.