BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: sb 1282
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: knight
VERSION: 2/21/14
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: NO
Hearing date: April 29, 2014
SUBJECT:
Gold Star Family specialized license plates
DESCRIPTION:
This bill authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to
issue personalized Gold Star Family specialized license plates.
ANALYSIS:
Personalized license plates
Since 1979, state law has allowed a vehicle owner, when
registering a vehicle, to request a personalized license plate
(sometimes referred to as a "vanity plate" or called an
"environmental license plate" in state law) that DMV issues in a
combination of letters, or numbers, or both, that the vehicle
owner selects. Vehicle owners must pay additional fees for the
issuance, renewal, transfer, and duplicates of personalized
plate. Revenue derived from these fees supports a variety of
state activities that have some environmental connection.
Gold Star Family specialized license plates
Existing law provides for a specialized license plate program,
under which DMV may issue new special-interest license plates
only on behalf of state agencies. A state agency's
special-interest license plate design must publicize or promote
the agency, its work, its official policy, or its mission, and
be confined to the left of and below the numerical series (i.e.,
no full plate designs allowed).
Prior to DMV issuing a new special-interest license plate, the
state agency must submit 7,500 applications and fees to DMV for
the license plate. In addition to the usual vehicle
registration fees, these fees include additional charges for
specialized license plates to fund the work of the state agency.
The additional fees for the first 7,500 applications covers
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DMV's costs to establish the license plate.
State law specifically allows the California Department of
Veterans Affairs (CDVA) to sponsor a Gold Star Family
specialized license plate in the absence of 7,500 paid
applications, provided that CDVA raises sufficient funds through
private and public donations to cover DMV's costs to establish
this license plate. CDVA collected sufficient donated funds,
and DMV began issuing Gold Star Family license plates in
November 2010. Since then, DMV has issued Gold Star Family
license plates to 737 vehicles.
To receive Gold Star Family license plates for a vehicle, the
vehicle's registered owner must present proof from either the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense
showing that a family member who was in the Armed Forces of the
United States was killed while on active duty. Further, the
vehicle owner must show proof satisfactory to CDVA of one of the
following relationships to the person killed while on active
duty:
Widow or widower
Biological parent, adoptive parent, stepparent, or foster
parent
Biological child, adoptive child, or stepchild
Sibling or half-sibling
Grandparent
Grandchild
Existing law exempts Gold Star Family license plates from the
additional fees for special-interest license plates and for
personalized plates. The law also requires that DMV issue the
plates in a sequential series. Therefore, DMV may not issue
these as personalized license plates.
This bill strikes the requirement that Gold Star Family license
plates be issued in a sequential series, thereby requiring DMV
to issue personalized Gold Star Family license plates.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The term "Gold Star Family" describes a family with
a relative who lost his or her life in the line of duty while
serving in the United States Armed Forces. Current law allows
DMV to issue Gold Star Family specialized license plates only
in sequential series and therefore not as personalized license
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plates with a combination of letters, numbers, or both,
requested by the owner of the vehicle.
Because Gold Star Family license plates pay homage to and
remind passersby of the sacrifices made by both the fallen
service members and their families, the author states that
restricting this special recognition to sequential order
license plates is arbitrary and ungrounded. He states that
state law should not subject an immediate family member who
has lost a loved one in the defense of our country to an
arbitrary restriction as that family member is trying to honor
his or her fallen relative. This bill, therefore, deletes the
requirement that DMV issue Gold Star plates as sequential
plates only, and thus allows the families to express more
fully their messages on their license plates.
2.The history of no personalized plates ? SB 1455 (Cogdill),
Chapter 309, Statutes of 2008, authorized CDVA to sponsor the
Gold Star Family license plate even without 7,500 paid
applications for the plate. The fees accompanying these
applications would have covered DMV's costs to establish the
plate. Instead, SB 1455 allowed CDVA to raise private and
public donations, and when DMV deemed those sufficient to
cover its startup costs, then DMV would start production of
the plate. During negotiations on that bill, DMV staff
indicated that the costs of establishing the plate would be
significantly lower if DMV issued the plate solely in
sequential order rather than as personalized plates. To
reduce the amount of funds that CDVA would need to raise, SB
1455 included the provision allowing DMV to issue sequential
plates only. This bill would remove that provision, thereby
causing DMV to incur additional costs now to modify its system
to provide for personalized Gold Star Family plates.
3.Fiscal considerations . This bill creates programming and
likely other costs for DMV to begin the production of
personalized Gold Star Family license plates, but provides no
mechanism for DMV to recoup those costs. Should the committee
approve the bill, it may wish to re-refer the bill to the
Rules Committee. Rules Committee could then consider a
re-referral to the Appropriations Committee for review of
these fiscal matters.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, April 23,
2014.)
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SUPPORT: None received.
OPPOSED: None received.