Leno moves to increase auto-registration fees
By: John Upton
Examiner Staff Writer
December 31, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — A renewed effort to hike car-registration fees is Mark Leno’s first legislative act as a state senator — a hike the former assemblyman says could raise $70 million a year for The City.
Leno introduced a bill that, if passed by state lawmakers and signed by the governor, would allow counties in California to levy an additional $10 annual registration fee on most vehicles.
If the bill becomes law, the introduction of such a tax within a county would require the support of a two-thirds vote of its supervisors and subsequent approval by its voters.
Vehicle fees that for decades and in various forms raised hundreds of billions of dollars for California counties were slashed in 1998 by lawmakers in the then-cash-flushed state, and a law that restored the fees in 2003 with the support of then-Gov. Gray Davis was rescinded later that year by the newly elected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
A bill written by Leno and passed by the Legislature that would have allowed San Francisco supervisors and voters to increase fees for vehicles registered in The City was vetoed by Schwarzenegger in 2006.
“This is an unfair burden to place solely on the shoulders of motorists,” Schwarzenegger wrote in his veto.
Leno told The Examiner he hopes Schwarzenegger will now be receptive to his latest proposal, since the governor has recently proposed raising other taxes to try to address California’s massive budget deficit.
“[The bill] doesn’t do anything but give county governments the opportunity to allow their voters a chance to speak for themselves with regards to restoring their vehicle license fees back to where they had been for 50 years,” Leno said. “It could be worth up to $70 million annually to San Francisco County. It would be up to the Board of Supervisors as to how to spend that money, but I think a wonderful nexus exists between vehicle license fees and public transit.”
Schwarzenegger’s press office did not return phone calls seeking comment.
