BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1323
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1323 (Lieu)
As Amended August 18, 2014
2/3 vote. Urgency
SENATE VOTE :Vote not relevant
TRANSPORTATION 14-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Lowenthal, Linder, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow, |
| |Achadjian, Bloom, Bonta, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Buchanan, Daly, Frazier, | |Calderon, Campos, |
| |Gatto, Holden, Nazarian, | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| |Patterson, Quirk-Silva, | |Holden, Jones, Linder, |
| |Waldron | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner, |
| | | |Weber |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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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, after deducting all other required costs, 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) Specifies that revenue generated from the Pet Lover's
License Plate Program that has been deposited in the
Specialized License Plate Fund is to be transferred to the
PLF as of the operative date of this bill.
4)Establishes the PLF in the State Treasury.
5)Directs funds deposited in the PLF to be continuously
SB 1323
Page 2
appropriated to VMB for purposes of funding grants to
providers of no-cost or low-cost animal sterilization services
pursuant to regulations to be adopted by VMB.
6)Includes an urgency provision.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Depending on the number of licenses plates sold, the
continuous appropriation could provide expenditure authority
to the VMB exceeding $150,000 in any fiscal year without
legislative budgetary oversight.
2)One-time transfer to the PLF of $120,000 in funds collected to
date for the Pet Lover's program.
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.
SB 1323
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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
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.
Analysis Prepared by : Manny Leon / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
FN: 0004764