Challenger questions Frazier’s veterans driver’s license bill, due to fee charged
Dear Editor:
Assemblyman Frazier’s AB-935…a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
In April, 2013, Assemblyman Jim Frazier (of Oakley) introduced AB-935, a bill which, among other things, allowed veterans to have a veteran designation on their drivers’ licenses. After its passage in the August 2014 session, he held a press conference in every town in AD-11, touting how hard it was to pass this legislation, as well as talk about the speed bumps along the way in its passage.
I would agree with him that the veteran’s designation is a useful designation, to all California veterans, the affluent as well as the homeless, and something that has been a long time in the making, to help veterans attain the services they have earned by serving this great nation.
After a careful legislative analysis, the designation was deemed “non-mandatory” in its current state, but what Assemblyman Frazier failed to mention in his press conference is the $5.00 fee to receive the designation, with the agency (CA DMV) reserving the right to raise that fee to a figure as high as $15.00. Meaning, if you want the designation, which you deserve, you’ll need to pay for it.
In my estimation, the introductory program amounts to a promo code time period in which the DMV will assess the success of the program. At that point, if successful, they will unleash Section 14901.1 of the Vehicle and Traffic Code to raise the veterans’ designation fee, to the fee they wanted to charge all along, which is $15.00 per veteran.
According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, there are 1,851,470 living veterans, from all branches of our nation’s service, residing in the State of California. What Mr. Frazier is seeking, is that $15.00 “cover charge” from each California veteran, which translates into over $27 million over five years’ time, into most likely transportation/infrastructure earmarks.
If I were to speak to every veteran from around this state, I would tell them to not get too excited about this very long, overdue veterans designation on their driver’s license. I would tell them to wait until your current DMV License expires in a few years before committing to a new one, or wait until Republicans in the Legislature, can offer this at a price it deserves to be offered at, which is free of charge.
If Democrats are going to insist on charging for this, they should put it where it will do the most good, that being county veterans service agencies. We’ve already seen the federal government whitewash how they handle things at the Veterans Administration, and the state is no better. Now, when they finally come up with a great idea, to help veterans earn the benefits they deserve, they find ways of making money off your service to our nation. I won’t even bore you with the statistics that Assembly Appropriations came up with when they drafted this bill, suffice it to say, that was their first and only consideration.
If elected to replace Mr. Frazier, in California’s vast 11th Assembly District, I will introduce new legislation to amend this otherwise well-meaning law, striking the fees to veterans from it. I agree with Mr. Frazier that we should always honor our veterans; what I vehemently do not agree on is imposing a tariff to receive the veteran designation. What I see is nothing more than a revenue generating bill, that Mr. Frazier and his colleagues are secretly imposing on our veterans…and it is utterly despicable.
Dave Miller, Conservative Republican Candidate for California State Assembly 11th District
California’s 11th Assembly District includes Antioch, Brentwood, Knightsen, Bethel Island, Oakley, Discovery Bay, Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun City, Rio Vista and a portion of Pittsburg.
Veterans who need photo identification as such would be far better served by registering with the VA and receiving their free photo ID. This will also get them into the VA’s system, and expedite the process of getting medical care should the need ever arise.
It’s not enough to give them free Healthcare and a pension? Now taxpayers should have to pay money so people can get a fancy new drivers license that doesn’t do anything that their veterans card can’t give them? Sorry, if you want to waste $5 million per year just so that you can pander to the military crowd then you’ve already lost my vote.
Just to keep the record straight Skip -The only Vets who get Health Care and its not free but Yes its not expensive are the Vets who Retired or have a service related disability. But I agree the Bill introduced by Jim frazer is not worth anything to me. My Retired Military ID card gets me everything .