Smog Check, Sex Crime Bills Become Law

Motorists with low incomes or old or new cars will get some relief from Smog Check II inspections because of four bills signed Thursday by Gov. Pete Wilson.

“These new laws will make it easier for motorists to comply with tougher pollution standards, which are a direct result of the federal government’s mandate to improve air quality,” the Republican governor said.

He also signed a trio of bills to study and regulate a chemical used to make gasoline burn cleaner. And he signed another group of bills further toughening laws against sex offenses.

All of the bills will take effect Jan. 1.

Smog Check II, passed by the Legislature in 1994 to meet the 1990 federal clean air law revisions, modified the Smog Check inspection program in effect since 1984.

A year ago, protests erupted at the Capitol when motorists realized that the new program, unlike the old, has no repair limits for cars judged to be “gross polluters,” which emit more than two times the allowable pollutants for that model and year.

Bills introduced to repeal Smog Check II were rejected last spring. What emerged in the final days of this year’s legislative session were four bills to modify the program. They will:

* Limit repair bills to $250 for low-income motorists and require the state to create a repair assistance program by March 1. Low-income motorists are those with annual earnings below about $27,000 for a family of four.

* Fund the low-income assistance program by using the current $300 smog impact fee paid by those motorists moving cars into the state and by charging a $4 yearly fee for new cars exempted from inspections.

* Exempt new cars from smog inspections for their first four years.

* Exempt from smog inspections cars of model year 1974 and earlier. The current exemption is for cars of model year 1965 and earlier. Beginning in 2003, vehicles that are 30 or more model years old will be exempt.

Another smog-related controversy that emerged this year was over methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, an oxygenate added to gasoline to make it burn more cleanly.

One of the bills signed Thursday will give the University of California $500,000 to study the health or environmental risks of the additive.

The bill also requires the governor to take appropriate action, including banning the additive, if the study finds there is a health problem.

The other two bills require the state to adopt drinking water standards for the additive.

The governor signed a related bill that prohibits delivery of gasoline to underground tanks that do not comply with state standards.

The sex offender bills include one that will add more crimes to the list of offenses requiring a convicted person to register as a sex offender upon release from prison.

The new crimes in the bill are pimping or pandering involving a minor, aggravated sexual assault of a child and solicitation to commit sexual assault.

Another bill increases the penalty for kidnapping with the intent to commit serious sex crimes to life with the possibility of parole.