Smog Check for Older Vehicles--SB 708

["jennifer allyn" <gearhead.girl@xxxx>]

SB 708 is written to require smog checks biennially for vehicles 30-45
years old. It seems harmless enough. It exempts vehicles driven under
12,000 miles a year which should mollify the car collectors. It is
ostensibly to promote cleaner air and the elimination of junk vehicles.
All good right? Wrong. It is a bill that merely creates more
paperwork without any significant benefit. More paperwork means more
work for clerks. More work for clerks means more tax dollars being
spent to pay the clerks. Tax dollars that are in short supply and much
needed for important applications.



I can tell you that most of the vehicles that fall into this group are
already in the hands of a collector. More than likely they a vast
majority are not driven more than 12,000 miles a year. Since they are
in the hands of collectors, the cars are more than likely tuned well and
running optimally; negating the image of smoke belching wrecks. The
SB42 exemption allowed these vintage vehicles to eliminate the nuisance
of a smog check. I say nuisance because when you smog one of these
older vehicles it is merely a process with no purpose and with the added
cost of the certificate. When I was required to smog my car collection,
I found that they passed effortlessly each time because they had no
emissions reduction system and were held to a different standard, the
standard that was in place when manufactured---or no standard. I never
understood why I had to pay for a certificate that didn't certify
anything except that I had jumped through the legislative hoop of a smog
check. 



I can afford the certificate, though I shouldn't have to. (My local
mechanic is doing well enough without this source of revenue.) I can
even make the time to drive the two cars, which actually fall into the
non-exempt group, to the local service station. What I find appalling,
is that my taxes will be spent to enforce these requirements. There is
a severe budget crisis in California. Cuts are being felt deeply in
every sector. I can think of many things I would rather see each penny
that it costs to track these vehicles and enforce this bill. Please
vote no on SB708, it is truly a bill that looks simple, but is simply
pointless.



Jennifer Allyn

6737 El Carmen Street

Long Beach, CA 90815





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