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Air Bill Clears Hurdle: Proposal Would Give Car Owners Tax Break for Trading in Smog Producers

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Hank Shaw, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

Mar. 21--SACRAMENTO - A lawmaker's quest to clean the San Joaquin Valley's air by junking smog-belching cars and trucks gained new life Monday when an Assembly panel approved legislation that would let some jalopy owners trade in for cleaner cars.

Assemblyman Dave Cogdill, a Modesto Republican whose district includes Calaveras County, began working on the legislation last year to enhance an existing state subsidy that helps low-income Californians remove old cars from the highways.

Cogdill's AB1997 passed the Assembly Transportation Committee 9-0.

California's air quality is fragile, and the Valley suffers particularly, because smog and other pollutants get trapped in the low-lying region.

Experts say pollution in the Valley contributes to more than 1,000 deaths every year. One child in six in the region needs an asthma inhaler.

Cogdill's latest proposal would give car owners - including businesses such as rental car companies - a tax break for donating cleaner vehicles to the state, which would then let San Joaquin Valley residents who owns older, dirtier cars or trucks swap for them.

"It's an opportunity without creating a new bureaucracy or adding fees for people to donate their vehicles and improve the environment," he said. "The goal is to get the gross polluters off the road."

This bill is narrower than Cogdill's previous attempts, partly to allay fears that scam artists could take advantage of the system. It also restricts the recipients of the cleaner vehicles to residents of the eight-county San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

That includes San Joaquin County but not the Mother Lode.

To prevent fraud, residents also must have registered their dirty vehicles in the district for at least two years and would be barred from immediately selling their new vehicles.

The legislation would expire in 2012.

Recent federal tax-law changes have made it tougher to write off the full market value of a donated car or truck. An Internal Revenue Service spokesman said a donor under Cogdill's proposal would qualify for the full tax break.

A typical donor vehicle would be built after 2000 and would have been donated because it had been driven extensively, Cogdill said. Retired rental cars are a prime example.

Cogdill's goal is to rid the Central Valley of "gross-polluting vehicles," defined as those that emit at least twice as much pollution as allowed under the law.

According to state records, 38,418 vehicles in the San Joaquin Valley qualified as gross-polluting vehicles in 2004, including 6,545 in San Joaquin County and 5,725 in Stanislaus County.

This dirtiest 10 percent of California's cars and trucks account for about half of all vehicular pollution, Cogdill said. According to the state Bureau of Automotive Repair, a car built in 1985 emits 30 times more pollutants than one built in 2000.

The proposal would piggyback on California's existing vehicle buyback program.

Called the Consumer Assistance Program, the state program gives low-income car owners up to $1,000 to repair or junk clunkers that fail to pass smog checks.

Since 2000, the program has helped clean up 60,636 vehicles - including 26,118 gross-polluting vehicles - at a cost of $21million.

The state Air Resources Board also runs a similar project funded by the fee drivers pay to scrap old tires and money from the Carl Moyer Fund, which is dedicated to cleaning America's air.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger included more money for both programs in his budget last year and added $8million more in the budget he released in January. Cogdill's proposal does not include income limits. The bill, AB1997, can be accessed on the Internet at www.leginfo.ca.gov.

Information and applications for existing state programs are available at www.smogcheck.ca.gov or by calling the Department of Consumer Affairs at (800) 952-5210.

Contact Capitol Bureau Chief Hank Shaw at (916)441-4078 or sacto@recordnet.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

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Source: The Record

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