BILL NUMBER: AB 2303INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Holden (Coauthor: Assembly Member Gatto) FEBRUARY 18, 2016 An act to add Section 5004.4 to the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2303, as introduced, Holden. Vehicles: specialized license plates. Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish a California Legacy License Plate Program that creates a series of specialized license plates that replicate plates from the state's past. This bill would require the department, if 7,500 applications are received before January 1, 2019, to add a specified license plate design utilized by the department between 1982 and 1987 to the California Legacy License Plate Program. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 5004.4 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read: 5004.4. (a) Subject to subdivision (c), the department shall add to the California Legacy License Plate Program, authorized pursuant to Section 5004.3, the license plate design utilized by the department between 1982 and 1987 that featured blue, orange, and red lettering, a white background, the phrase "Golden State" and a sunset design. (b) An applicant for the specialized license plates described in subdivision (a), who shall be the owner or lessee of the vehicle on which the plates will be displayed, may choose to either accept a license plate character sequence assigned by the department or request a combination of letters or numbers or both. (c) In addition to the regular fees for an original registration or renewal of registration, the following additional fees shall be paid for the issuance, renewal, retention, or transfer of the specialized license plates: (1) Fifty dollars ($50) for the original issuance of the plates. (2) Forty dollars ($40) for a renewal of registration with the plates. (3) Fifteen dollars ($15) for transfer of the plates to another vehicle. (4) Thirty-five dollars ($35) for each substitute replacement plate. (5) Thirty-eight dollars ($38), when the payment of renewal fees is not required as specified in Section 4000 and the holder of the specialized license plates retains the plates. The fee shall be due at the expiration of the registration year of the vehicle to which the specialized license plates were assigned. This paragraph shall not apply when a plate character sequence is assigned by the department pursuant to subdivision (b). (d) The department shall not issue California Legacy License Plates for a vehicle that is exempt from the payment of registration fees pursuant to Section 9101 or 9103. (e) (1) The department shall not add the license plate authorized by subdivision (a) until the department has received not less than 7,500 paid applications for plates. The department shall collect and hold applications for the plates. The department shall not issue the specialized plate authorized by subdivision (a) until it has received not less than 7,500 paid applications for plates within the time period prescribed in paragraph (2). (2) The department shall have until January 1, 2019, to receive the required number of applications. If, after that date, 7,500 paid applications have not been received for the plate described in subdivision (a), the department shall immediately refund to all applicants all fees or deposits that have been collected. (f) (1) Upon determination by the department that there are sufficient funds for the program, moneys gathered pursuant to this section shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the necessary administrative costs incurred pursuant to this section. (2) After deducting its administrative costs pursuant to paragraph (1), the department shall deposit any additional revenue derived from the issuance, renewal, retention, transfer, and substitution of the specialized license plates into the State Highway Account in the State Transportation Fund, to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature for the purpose of funding bikeways through the Active Transportation Program.