HB22 By Representative Drake RFD Public Safety and Homeland Security Rd 1 03-MAR-15

SYNOPSIS: This bill would provide for a distinctive motor vehicle license plate for paid professional firefighters. The bill would provide penalties for falsely obtaining a professional firefighter tag.

This bill would also provide that a member of the Legion of Valor would receive a distinctive permanent license plate for a private passenger motor vehicle registered in the name of the resident without the payment of any fee or tax.

Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, prohibits a general law whose purpose or effect would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds from becoming effective with regard to a local governmental entity without enactment by a 2/3 vote unless: it comes within one of a number of specified exceptions; it is approved by the affected entity; or the Legislature appropriates funds, or provides a local source of revenue, to the entity for the purpose.

The purpose or effect of this bill would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of the amendment. However, the bill does not require approval of a local governmental entity or enactment by a 2/3 vote to become effective because it comes within one of the specified exceptions contained in the amendment.

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT

Relating to distinctive license plates for motor vehicles; to provide for distinctive license plates for professional firefighters; to provide penalties for falsely obtaining a professional firefighter tag; to amend Sections 32-6-250 and 32-6-251 of the Code of Alabama 1975, relating to distinctive license plates, to provide that a member of the Legion of Valor would receive a free distinctive license plate; and in connection therewith would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:

Section 1. As used in this act, professional firefighter means a paid member of a paid or part-paid fire department of a city, town, county, or other subdivision of the state, including the chief, assistant chief, warden, engineer, captain, firemen, and all other officers and employees of the department who actually engage in fire fighting or rendering first aid at the scene of an accident.

Section 2. (a) Notwithstanding Sections 32-6-64, 32-6-67, and 32-6-68, Code of Alabama 1975, a paid professional firefighter, upon application and subject to the provisions of this act, may be issued a distinctive motor vehicle license plate or tag upon identification as a paid professional firefighter.

(b) In addition to the proper numbers, words, and insignias used on the standard license plate or tag issued for motor vehicles, the distinctive plates or tags so issued for a professional firefighter shall have a design created by the state association of professional firefighters in coordination with the tag department of the Alabama Department of Revenue. Motor vehicle and motorcycle license plates shall bear the same design.

Section 3. (a) The distinctive license plate provided herein shall be prepared, approved by the Commissioner of Revenue, and shall be issued through the judge of probate, license commissioner, or other license issuing official of the several counties of the state in the same manner as are other motor vehicle license plates or tags, and the officers shall be entitled to their regular fees for the service.

(b) By December 1 of each year, the Firefighters' Personnel Standards and Education Commission shall submit to the judge of probate, the license commissioner, or other license issuing official of each county a list of eligible professional firefighters from paid or part-paid fire departments under this act.

(c) Any person who joins a paid or part-paid fire department after December 1 of any year or any person who is mistakenly omitted from the lists prepared as described above may obtain a distinctive plate by presenting to the license issuing official proof of his or her membership in a fire department by means of a certificate signed by the chief of the department on a form prescribed by the Firefighters' Personnel Standards and Education Commission.

(d) Upon the applicant submitting proof of his or her identification, the professional firefighter shall be issued the requested number of distinctive license plates or tags upon the payment of the regular license fee for tags, as provided by law.

(e) The distinctive license plates or tags issued pursuant to this section shall be used only upon and for personally owned, private passenger vehicles, to include station wagons, pick-up trucks, and motorcycles registered in the name of the professional firefighter making application therefor, and when so issued to the applicant shall be used upon the vehicle for which issued in lieu of the standard license plates or license tags normally issued for the vehicle.

(f) Any person who falsely obtains or certifies an individual to obtain a distinctive professional firefighter license plate, who is not qualified to obtain the plate shall be guilty of a Class C misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished as provided by law.

Section 4. Distinctive plates or tags as provided by this act shall be prepared and furnished for the licensing year commencing January 1, 2016, and thereafter as provided by law for the issuance of other license plates.

Section 5. Sections 32-6-250 and 32-6-251 of the Code of Alabama 1975, are amended to read as follows:

"§32-6-250.

"(a) A distinctive permanent license plate shall be issued to any resident of the state who is a recipient of the Medal of Honor or the widow of a recipient of the Medal of Honor, to any resident who is a recipient of the Purple Heart Medal, or to any resident who is a member of the Legion of Valor with positive proof of the award of the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the Army Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, or the Air Force Cross, or to any resident who shows by satisfactory proof that he or she was a duly recognized former prisoner of war, for use on a private motor vehicle registered in the name of the resident. There shall be no fee or tax for the license plate, except Purple Heart Medal recipients shall pay ad valorem taxes on vehicles for which the distinctive plates are issued, and no recipient shall receive a plate for more than one vehicle except as provided in subsection (c).

"(b) A former prisoner of war for purposes of this section is a person who, as a member of the United States Armed Forces, or while serving with a formal United States ally force, or as a United States civilian, was held as a prisoner of war during any armed conflict by forces hostile to the United States.

"(c) A person eligible to be issued a distinctive license plate under this section may be issued additional distinctive license plates, under any of the above license plate categories, if the person otherwise qualifies to receive the distinctive license plate, upon payment of all license tax and registration fees, including ad valorem taxes, for the vehicles. Annual renewal decals shall be provided after payment, if required, of license fees and taxes for the years during which a new tag or plate is not issued as provided in Section 32-6-63.

"§32-6-251.

"The special plates shall be of the same size as regular motor vehicle license plates, distinguished by the letters MOH, or LOV, or PHM to be of a different color scheme and design to any other vehicle tag in this state, or POW to be of the same color scheme as other distinguished military tags in this state, whichever distinctive design applies, the nature of which shall be prescribed by a committee to be appointed by the chief legislative sponsors of this division."

Section 6. All laws or parts of laws which conflict with this act are repealed.

Section 7. Although this bill would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds, the bill is excluded from further requirements and application under Amendment 621 because the bill defines a new crime or amends the definition of an existing crime.

Section 8. This act shall become effective on the first day of the third month following its passage and approval by the Governor, or its otherwise becoming law.

Motor Vehicles

Firefighters

Revenue Department

Military

Veterans

Legion of Valor

Crimes and Offenses

Code Amended