Today a hearing was held in Sacramento regarding a “per bond fee” to be paid directly to the Department of Insurance:
AB 1406, as introduced, requires every surety insurer to pay a fee of $30 for every bail bond it issues. This money would go into a segregated account in state government to be used only for enforcement of the laws and regulations governing bail agents.
The author of the bill accepted two amendments requested by the committee. These amendments were 1) to reduce the amount of the fee from $30 to $15 for each bail bond, and 2) to remove the provision allowing the Insurance Commissioner to issue binding regulations without having to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act. With these two amendments the bill was passed by the Committee. The vote in committee was 7-2. The final vote tally may different, although a different vote tally will not change the fact that the bill passed. Assembly rules allow members to add their votes after a roll call as long as the added vote does not change the outcome of the original roll call.
There were many witnesses from the bail industry. The hearing took nearly an hour. The debate did not focus upon the fee. The witnesses opposed to the bill focused upon the inadequacy of the current law governing the bail industry. They spoke of the outdated and vague regulations, and the problems caused by the statutes. They argued that the Insurance Code statutes are confusing and that this problem is compounded by other laws governing bail found in the Penal Code, and which were apparently adopted without any serious attempt to coordinate them with the Insurance Code statutes. With respect to the fee they only said that a fee to increase enforcement was not justified unless and until there were sensible laws for these additional staff to enforce.
The bill ultimately passed as a “work in progress”. Assembly member Gordon, the author of the bill, promised to “work with the opposition” to address their concerns. It seems, therefore, that AB 1406 could become the vehicle for substantial changes in the law governing bail agencies. Anybody who is interested in changing the law on bail regulation would be well-advised to consider proposing their changes in the context of AB 1406.
This is the first hearing on the bill, but legislation moves quickly. The deadline for moving Assembly bills to the Senate is June 5, and legislative protocol is that major amendments should be requested before a bill leaves the house of origin. That’s not mandatory, but it is the most professional approach, and the approach with the greatest chance of success. If new ideas are going to be proposed for the bill, they should be proposed within the next 4-5 weeks.