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Office SC08 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kevin Nguyen July 17, 1997 (415) 301-1721 COMMITTEE PULLS AUTO EXEMPTION BILL OVER TO SHOULDER, KOPP CALLS FOR ROAD ASSISTANCE Despite 12,000 letters, Internet messages and petitions of support, Senate Bill 42, by Senator Quentin L. Kopp (Independent - San Francisco/San Mateo), failed passage late yesterday in the State Assembly Appropriations Committee. SB 42 would exempt vehicles 25 or more model years old from California's biennial smog check requirement. Kopp's measure passed by a 33-0 vote in the Senate and a 17-0 vote in the Assembly Transportation Committee. In Assembly Appropriations, however, a motion to pass SB 42 to the full Assembly fell three votes short and was rejected, 8-8. SB 42 was subsequently placed on the committee's Suspense File, which allows Kopp to pursue another vote as soon as late-August. "I'm disappointed but undeterred by the vote," said Kopp. "As proponents and supporters of SB 42, we must now focus our attention and redouble our efforts to impress upon the Assembly Appropriations Committee members the urgency and necessity of this legislation." (The Assembly Appropriations Committee can be reached at 916-322-4323, or State Capitol, Room 2114, Sacramento, CA 95814.) The number of affected vehicles is small; the Air Resources Board estimates that the bill would exempt approximately 400,000 vehicles (or slightly more than 1%) of the 23,000,000 registered passenger automobiles in California. The bill would affect only those vehicles manufactured from 1966 to 1973; pre-1966 vehicles already are excluded from the smog check. "The bureaucrats oppose this commonsense measure not on the basis of policy but on the basis of the smog certificate fee revenues that would be lost to their programs!" stated Kopp, who is Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. In addition to attracting national attention from many individuals and trade publications, SB 42's official supporters include the California State Automobile Associ-ation, numerous other car collector clubs and Jay Leno, host of the "Tonight Show. <=
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