BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1323
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 26, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
SB 1323 (Lieu) - As Amended: June 17, 2014
SENATE VOTE : Not relevant
SUBJECT : Specialized license plates: Pet Lover's License Plate
Program
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to
deposit fees collected for a specialized license plate issued
under the Pet Lover's Specialized License Plate Program into the
Pet Lover's Specialized License Plate Fund (PLF), as specified.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires DMV to deposit the fees collected under the Pet
Lover's Specialized License Plate Program sponsored by the
Veterinary Medical Board (VMB) into the PLF.
2)Specifies the funds collected by any successor specialized
license plate program sponsored by VMB are to be deposited
into the PLF.
3)Establishes the PLF in the State Treasury.
4)Directs funds deposited in the PLF to be continuously
appropriated to VMB for purposes of funding grants to
providers of no-cost or low-cost animal sterilization
services.
5)Requires VMB to consider recommendations from the California
Spay and Neuter License Plate Fund Inc. in determining how to
award grant funds.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes specialized license plate programs and requires
DMV to issue specialized license plates to a sponsoring state
agency that meets specific requirements.
2)Requires DMV to, in addition to the regular fees paid for an
original or renewal of vehicle registration, charge specified
fees for the issuance, renewal, or transfer of specialized
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license plates.
3)Requires DMV to deduct the administrative cost to implement
the specialized license plate program from the abovementioned
additional fees and directs the remainder of the fees to be
deposited in the Specialized License Plate Fund.
4)Specifies that fees deposited in the Specialized License Plate
Fund are to be appropriated by the Legislature and allocated
to each sponsoring agency in proportion to the amount that is
collected for the sponsoring agency's specialized license
plate program.
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.
Specialized license 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. A state
agency must first submit an initial application to DMV
requesting sponsorship of a specialized license plate. The
process then provides the sponsoring state agency 12 months to
obtain the required 7,500 paid applications and must be received
by the sponsoring 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.
Furthermore, fees collected from the specialized license plate
programs are first used to cover DMV program administrative
costs with the remaining additional funds being deposited into
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the Specialized License Plate Fund and subject to appropriation
by the Legislature.
DMV currently administers 12 specialized license plate programs,
including the Pet Lover's specialized license plate program. AB
610 (Solorio), Chapter 9, Statutes of 2012, provided VMB an
additional 12 month period to meet the 7,500 application
threshold as required by existing law. VMB obtained the
necessary applications over the additional 12 months and began
issuing Pet Lover's specialized license plates in September of
2013. As of May 31, 2014, DMV has issued 8,070 Pet Lover's
specialized license plates and generated $94,844.
This bill requires DMV to deposit additional revenue generated
from the Pet Lover's specialized license plate program into the
newly created PLF and to be continuously appropriated to VMB.
The author introduced this bill in order to streamline the
funding process for the Pet Lover's plate program and to keep
revenue flowing to programs that fund animal sterilization
services. Currently a timing issue exists between when DMV
started collecting fees for the Pet Lover's specialized license
plate program and when DMV has the authority to allocate the
funds to VMB. Due to this timing issue, VMB would receive
program funds no earlier than July 2015. The author notes the
provisions in this bill are necessary to ensure that the funds
meant to go to no-cost or low-cost spay and neuter programs
actually reach their intended purpose in a timely manner and do
not get delayed in the state budget process.
Author's amendment: The author proposes to amend the bill to
include an urgency measure in order to ensure funds generated
from the Pet Lover's specialized license plate program are
available to VMB in a timely manner.
Previous legislation:
AB 610 (Solorio), Chapter 9, Statute of 2012, provided an
additional 12 months for the collection of the 7,500 paid
applications necessary for VMB to successfully sponsor a the Pet
Lover's specialized license plate.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
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Veterinary Medical Board
State Humane Association of California
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Manny Leon / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093