BILL NUMBER: AB 2443INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Williams FEBRUARY 24, 2012 An act to add Section 9853.9 to the Vehicle Code, relating to vessels. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2443, as introduced, Williams. Vessels: registration fee: mussels. Existing law establishes various programs administered by, among other agencies, the Department of Fish and Game and the State Lands Commission, to prevent aquatic invasive species introduction and manage the spread and impacts of aquatic invasive species in state waters. Existing law prohibits, except as authorized by the Department of Fish and Game, a person from possessing, importing, shipping, or transporting in the state, or from placing, planting, or causing to be placed or planted in any water within the state, dreissenid mussels, which are regulated by the department as an invasive species. Existing law establishes a registration fee for vessels and applies certain fee increases to that registration fee. This bill, beginning July 1, 2013, would authorize a county to assess a fee in an unspecified amount on a vessel registered in that county. The bill would require funds from the fee to be used to establish and operate a dreissenid mussel monitoring, inspection, and eradication program in the county. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 9853.9 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read: 9853.9. (a) The Legislature finds and declares that the fee authorized by this section is for the reasonable regulatory costs for inspection and administrative enforcement of a program to reduce and eliminate invasive species in the waters of the state. (b) Beginning July 1, 2013, in addition to the fees described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 9853, a county may assess a fee in the amount of ____ dollars ($____) on a vessel registered in that county. (c) The funds from the fee shall be used to establish and operate a dreissenid mussel monitoring, inspection, and eradication program in the county.