Officials Vow to Solve Smog Check II Woes

High-level Wilson administration officials acknowledged Tuesday that the new Smog Check II vehicle inspection program is plagued by start-up problems, but promised solutions before the program is fully implemented next year.

“Together we can constructively discuss what’s broken, fix the problem and improve the program,” Undersecretary Anne E. Sheehan of the State and Consumer Services Agency told a legislative fact-finding hearing.

Sheehan and other officials appeared before the state Senate Transportation Committee in response to complaints that the first phases of Smog Check II have inconvenienced motorists and will end up costing more money than the previous smog check program.

Under pressure to comply with federal clean air standards, Gov. Pete Wilson and the 1994 Legislature enacted the Smog Check II program. It is aimed at getting the worst polluting vehicles off the road in California’s smoggiest regions and into repair shops.

These vehicles, known as “gross polluters,” account for about 10% of cars and light trucks in California, but are blamed for causing up to half of all smog.

But as the strict new requirements gradually have been phased in, complaints have exploded.

They have ranged from motorists who cannot get through by telephone to make a test appointment to auto mechanics who claim their livelihoods are threatened by the high price of new equipment.

Sheehan told the committee that the state Bureau of Automotive Repair acted to defuse motorist anger last summer by installing more telephone lines and taking other actions. In addition, she said, new lanes have been added at the state-run referee stations, which retest cars that have failed smog inspections at privately operated garages.

“Since mid-September there has been no backlog at the referee stations,” she said.

Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco), the committee chairman and a Smog Check II supporter, defended the program against what he called “myths, misconceptions and untruths.”

He said there was no evidence that government officials had confiscated vehicles that flunked smog tests or that local authorities had impounded gross polluting vehicles. The law does not allow such confiscation.

Accounts of such supposed actions were regular fare on some San Francisco Bay Area radio talk shows this summer.

However, Kopp and Sheehan agreed that many low-income motorists whose vehicles are tagged as gross polluters won’t be able to afford smog repairs without some form of subsidy.

The law prohibits a gross polluting vehicle from being re-registered until it is repaired.

There is no limit on repair bills, although drivers can seek a one-year extension for economic hardship or a two-year waiver on additional repairs after paying an initial $450 for repairs.

Current law envisions repair subsidies for low-income motorists by allowing new-car buyers to skip their first smog check and instead deposit $39 into a special fund. But Kopp said that new-car dealers do not support the program and that the fund contains only about $3 million.

Sheehan agreed that aiding low-income motorists is a key issue, but she did not endorse any proposed solution.