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For information on
this years conference please contact Bob Stearns at bstearns@ncbb.net |
Legislative Update The 2010 Sacramento Autorama did not have as many cars as in past years, but the ACCC talked to many prospective members and passed out many membership applications as well as signing some new members. Thanks to the Townsmen Car Club of Sacramento and ACCC Directors, Vic Repstad, Jeff Freitas and Steve Teixera the ACCC booth was always manned. I attended the General meeting for the Roamin Angels Car Club on February 21st and informed them about new legislation. They presented the ACCC with a generous donation again to help fight legislation that is detrimental to the hobby. The deadline for new bills ended in February and there has not been any new legislation to bring the pre-1976 vehicles back into the smog check program or implement mandatory remote sensing or annual smog inspection for vehicles 15 years and older. We still need to be prepared for any action where these issues can be secretly placed in current legislation.February was the 2nd month for the 2010 Legislative session and already bills are getting introduced by the California legislators. One bill that was introduced by Assembly member Jeffries is AB1740. This is a new bill that involves the Specially Constructed Vehicles. This bill is very similar to SB232 that Senator Benoit introduced in 2009. An act to amend Section 44017.4 of the Health and Safety Code, and to amend Section 4750.1 of the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles. This bill would delete the first 500 vehicle limitation and instead require the Department of Motor Vehicles to provide registration to any specially constructed vehicle that meets the specified criteria. The bill would provide that the registered owner of a specially constructed vehicle that is currently registered or incorrectly registered may change the vehicle's registration by complying with those specified criteria. You can read the entire bill on the acccdefender.org website. This is a bill that the Association of California Car Clubs supports. Assembly member Jeffries is a friend of the car hobby and will be a guest speaker at the ACCC Legislative Conference to be held at the California Automobile Museum in May of 2010. You can sign up for the conference on the ACCC website or contact me at 916-276-4081. There will be many other guest speakers at our 2010 conference including the California Highway Patrol, DMV, CARB, BAR and California Legislators. I want to encourage all car enthusiasts to attend and meet and talk to state Senators, Assembly members and state regulators. This is your chance to ask questions about concerns you may have about our car hobby. There is also a movement underway to suspend AB32 (Greenhouse Gas/Cap and Trade Bill) until the unemployment rate reaches 5.5%. AB32 is a bill that was signed into law by the Governor in 2006 and gives CARB (California Air Resources Board) more authority and money to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Past representatives from local air boards are expressing concerns about the validity of the law. Many scientists are also questioning the validity of Global Warming. The ACCC will be meeting prior to our Legislative Conference to discuss the possibility of introducing our own bill in 2011. I encourage all of the car enthusiasts to talk to businesses and friends and get them to join the Association of California Car Clubs and become a part of the solution.
Bob Stearns ACCC Legislative Liaison/Analyst 916-276-4081
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January Meeting with our lobbyist Vic Repstad and I met with Fred Taugher and Fred Evenson was on speaker phone. The net of the meeting was to decide what to do about any new legislation and any proposed ACCC legislation for 2010. It was decided that we need more time and an author to go forward with any new legislation sponsored by the ACCC. It was decided that we look at introducing new ACCC legislation in 2011. At that time, a new governor and new legislators will be taking office. The states economic situation may be in better shape by then??????????
SB232 still does not have an author that is willing to replace Senator Benoit's vacant office. Since the bill has to get through the Senate by January 31st, it doesn't look good and will most likely die. SB385 is going to be dropped by Senator Wright as per an agreement with the Senate Chairman Lowenthal. AB859 is destined to die as well.
Legislative Calendar is as follow:
Jan 15, 2010 - Last day for policy committees to hear and report bills introduced in 2009 for referral to fiscal committees
Jan 22, 2010 - Last day for any committee to hear and report to the Floor bills introduced in their house in 2009. Last day to submit bill requests to the Office of Legislative Counsel.
Jan 31, 2010 - Last day for each house to pass bills introduced in their house in 2009
Feb 19, 2010 - Last day for new bills to be introduced.
Fred Taugher will keep us informed of any new bills that will concern the ACCC and we plan to meet with him again in early March.
Vic and I were invited to lunch with Senator John Bruggeman (SEMA) and we discussed AB619. This amnesty bill was designed specifically for Illegally registered Specially Constructed Vehicles and not for any other licensed vehicles.
Vic is setting up a meeting with the Roamin Angels and Senator Bruggeman and myself to address any questions from the club and give them an update on our strategy for this year.
Bob Stearns ACCC Legislative Liaison/Analyst |
Presidents Message Greetings to all ACCC members another year is under our belt, due to the budget problems many bills got cancelled and some carried over to 2010. We will see in Jan what is going to be back on the agenda. In the last few months the ACCC and our lobbyist have been Talking about a new bill to help protect our hobby, some of the details were discussed at the Sema gathering and some of our members have spoken their concerns. This proposed bill is only in the planning stage, but the design is to put the entire hobby under the existing collector car bill, and to get exemptions for our cars. Our aim is to get all cars street rods, muscle cars, SCVs, customs, etc under one umbrella, and use the car insurance companies as the means of regerestering our cars. There might be a need to put a mileage limitation into the bill in order to get the bill passed and that’s the key issue in any bill is getting it passed. If we have to but a mileage limit in it might be around 5000 miles a year. No one wants any kind of limit put in but if we want to still drive our cars in Calif this might be the only way. Also cars driven out of state on cross country cruises the mileage driven outside of Calif will not count. When the directors have read and approved a recommended bill we will post it on our web site www.acccdefender.org and inform you all thru our legislative alert list. Please remember this if it was not for the ACCC efforts the air resources board would have our cars parked. The ACCC pays for a lobbyist in Sacramento that’s where your membership dues go to. The larger our membership is the stronger our voice is to our legislators so ask your friends to join us in our fight to keep our cars on the road . Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Fred Evenson President ACCC |
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