BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 544
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 23, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
SB 544 (DeSaulnier) - As Amended: June 5, 2014
SENATE VOTE : 34-0
SUBJECT : School safety programs: funding
SUMMARY : Requires the State Department of Education (CDE) to
apply to the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for
purposes of creating a specialized license plate program.
Establishes the School Violence Prevention Fund and directs
funds to be allocated to CDE to fund school safety programs.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Allows any state agency to apply to DMV to sponsor a
specialized license plate program.
2)Requires DMV to issue specialized license plates for that
program if the agency complies with all statutory
requirements.
3)Prohibits DMV from establishing a specialized license plate
program for an agency until it has received not less than
7,500 paid applications for that agency's specialized license
plates.
4)Requires the agency to collect and hold applications for the
plates. Once the agency has received at least 7,500
applications, it must submit the applications, along with the
necessary fees, to DMV.
5)Prohibits advance payment to DMV of its estimated or actual
administrative costs associated with the issuance of a
particular specialized license plate from constituting
compliance with the 7,500 application threshold requirement.
6)Requires funds accruing to a sponsoring state agency from the
sale of specialized license plates to be expended exclusively
for projects and programs that promote that agency's official
policy, mission, or work.
SB 544
Page 2
7)Allows specialized license plates to feature a distinctive
design, decal, or distinctive message in a two-inch by
three-inch space to the left of the plate's numerical sequence
and a space not larger than 5/8-inch in height below the
numerical series.
8)Establishes the School Safety Consolidated Competitive Grant
Program (school safety grant) and is administered by CDE in
partnership with the State Attorney General's Office.
9)Allows school districts that meet certain criteria to apply
for the safety grant to fund specific school safety programs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Prior to 2007, any new specialized license plate
required specific legislative authorization. That practice was
held to be unconstitutional by the federal courts in that the
Legislature approved some of the plates and rejected others,
while using no standardized or objective criteria for those
decisions. In response to the court decision, AB 84 (Leslie),
Chapter 454, Statutes of 2006, 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.
Plates now created and the revenue they generate must publicize
or promote a state agency, or the official policy, mission, or
work of a state agency. Furthermore, the process requires that
at least 7,500 paid applications must be received by the state
agency prior to notifying DMV. The 7,500-application threshold
was previously put into statute for specialized license plates
and was arrived at in an attempt to assure that DMV's startup
costs would be fully covered by the portion of the registration
fee surcharge that is directed to DMV and to avoid a
proliferation of different types of plates, which can be
troublesome from a law enforcement perspective.
This bill requires CDE to apply to DMV to sponsor a specialized
license plate consistent with the current process in existing
law. The author notes that youth violence is a serious public
health problem that affects the physical, mental, and emotional
SB 544
Page 3
health of adolescence. According to the National Center for
Injury Prevention and Control, each day 13 young people are
victims of homicide and more that 1,600 are treated in emergency
rooms for nonfatal injuries associated with youth violence.
Additional statistics from dosomething.org indicate that 43% of
young adults have experienced cyber bullying of some form -
within that group, 25% have experienced cyber bullying more than
once.
The revenue generated from the specialized license plate will be
used to provide supplemental funding for school safety programs
under the school safety grant and include programs such as safe
school planning, gang-risk intervention, and school community
violence prevention which are aimed to prevent and reduce
incidence of youth violence.
Related legislation:
SR 28 (Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing) of 2014
requests that DMV create a task force made up of DMV, CHP, and
local law enforcement to study and make recommendations by July
1, 2015, on license plate designs appropriate for traffic safety
and effective law enforcement in today's environment; declares a
moratorium on legislation to increase the number of license
plate types that DMV may issue until the Legislature can assess
the full and long-term impact of the ongoing increase in license
plate types. That bill passed out of the Senate on April 10,
2014 with a vote of 34-0.
AB 49 (Buchanan) of 2013 requires the Department of Health Care
Services to apply to DMV to establish a specialized license
plate that promotes breast cancer awareness on a light pink
background that CHP determines does not obscure the readability
of the license plate. That bill since last August has been held
in the Senate Rules Committee.
AB 2450 (Perez and Logue) of 2014 requires the State Department
of Public Health to apply to DMV to sponsor a specialized
license plate that promotes awareness of kidney disease and
bears the name and official logo of the National Kidney
Foundation. That bill is currently in the Senate Transportation
and Housing Committee.
Previous legislation :
SB 544
Page 4
AB 244 (Bonilla), Chapter 690, Statutes of 2013, requires the
Department of Veterans Affairs to apply to DMV to sponsor a
veterans specialized license plate, and would require the DMV to
issue the veterans specialized license plates if the Department
of Veterans Affairs specific requirements.
AB 482 (Atkins), Chapter 590, Statutes of 2013, requires the
California Cultural and Historical Endowment, if it creates a
competitive grant program as specified, to apply to DMV for the
purpose of creating a specialized license plate program using
the cartoon character Snoopy.
AB 853 (Brown and Linder) of 2013, would have authorized CHP to
apply to DMV to sponsor a
program for a series of motorsports and auto-enthusiast themed
license plates. That bill died in the Assembly Transportation
Committee.
AB 1096 (Nestande) of 2013, would require DMV, in consultation
with the Salton Sea
Joint Powers Authority, to design and make available a Salton
Sea environmental specialized license plate bearing a full-plate
graphic design. That bill is currently in the Senate Rules
Committee.
SB 789 (Price), Chapter 221, Statutes of 2013, authorizes the
California Arts Council to use funds generated by specialized
license plate applications for administrative purposes that was
previously prohibited.
AB 610 (Solorio), Chapter 9, Statutes of 2012, allows the
Veterinary Medical Board an additional 12 months to accumulate
the required 7,500 applications for the establishment of a Pet
Lover's specialized license plate.
AB 1242 (Achadjian) of 2012, would have authorized the
Foundation for California Community Colleges to apply to DMV to
sponsor specialized license plates for the National Association
for stock car Auto Racing (NASCAR). That bill died in the
Assembly Transportation Committee.
AB 1539 (Hayashi) of 2012, would have authorized an
anti-bullying license plate program in support of persons who
are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
community. That bill died in the Assembly Transportation
SB 544
Page 5
Committee.
SB 1018 (Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee), Chapter 39,
Statutes of 2012, among other provisions of the budget trailer
bill, authorizes DMV, in consultation with the California
Department of Parks and Recreation, to design and make available
for issuance special state parks environmental license plates
bearing a full-plate graphic design.
Double referred : This bill is also referred to the Assembly
Education Committee where it will be directed if it successfully
passes out of this committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Hon. Tom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Manny Leon / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093