Re: California Smog Impact Fee

[Gene Brown <simigene@domain.elided>]

There was an opinion piece in today's LA Time by Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), who
is vice chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee. In the piece he indicates
that since 1990 the state has collected $455 million in smog impact fees, which
works out to about 1.5 million cars or an average of 150,000 cars per year.
Considering that there are 27,000,000 registered vehicles in California the number
of out of state cars registered in the state is not significant. The legislature own
legal counsel said that the fee was unconstitutional on both state and federal
grounds before the law was even passed.

What is interesting is that the $300 Smog Impact Fee is not used to offset any smog
related costs but just goes into the general fund. Even if there is no difference in
smog equipment between a made car for sale in California and one for the other 49
states the fee still has to be paid. It doesn't even matter if the car can pass the
limits for the California version of the car. It might be different if the fee was
charged only if the vehicle could not meet the California emission limits. In which
case the lawsuit that resulted in the overturning of the fee would probably never
have been filed.

Since every car in California later than the 1973 model year has to pass a
California emissions test every two years even if the car was brought in as a used
car the smog impact fee doesn't seem to be designed to mitigate the expense of those
"smoggy" out of state cars since they can't be registered if they don't pass the
test any ways. It seems to be more of a revenue source. While $300 isn't much to the
state $455 million is still more money than I have in the bank.

There is not really much incentive to buy a used car out of state. Besides the $300
smog impact fee if you bring a car into the state within 90 days from the date of
purchase you will be hit with a use tax (sales tax) of about 7.5% (varies with
county). As far as new cars go individuals are prohibited from importing,
purchasing, or leasing a new vehicle from another state, unless the vehicle was
manufactured for sale in California, and the Environmental Protection Agency label
certifies the vehicle has California smog equipment. California considers a new
vehicle to be any vehicle with less than 7,500 miles on the odometer at the time of
purchase. It would seem that the rules were made to benefit the car dealers (big
surprise) rather than to minimize smog. It would appear that what the powers that be
would really like is that at each entry crossing into Californian there would be a
car dealer to purchase your out-of-state car (at wholesale) and sell you a
"California approved car" (at retail+) before you're allowed entry into the state
(tourists exempted unless the state could impound their car and rent you a
"California car" for you visit). This would probably violate several federal laws
and be unconstitutional, but that didn't stop them with the smog impact fee.

In addition to this studies have indicated that almost no cars will fail the smog
test in the first 5 years so the state has said that you don't need to get a smog
test for the first 4 years, but you have to pay the state $4 to not have your car
tested. This $4 fee is to partially offset the loss of the $7 smog certificate fee
that the states gets out of each smog check. Since the smog test is required every
two years and you don't have to get one for the first 4 years then a car would be 6
years old before it's first smog test. The problem is that the manufacturer only has
to warranty the emission system for 5 years. By the time that you found out that an
emission component has failed the warranty has expired and you have to pay for the
repairs. It would probably be a good idea to pay for a smog test before the 5th year
just to verify that there is not problem that would be covered by the warranty.

In spite of the DMV California has a few pluses. We don't have to put our Alfa's
into hibernation for the winter (what's winter? - oh yeah, that's when the houses
slide down the mountains), lots of winding roads, and driving up (or down) the coast
with the top down.

Gene Brown
78 Spider
AROSC

------------------------------