Home California Pink Plate Campaign Just 378 Signatures Short of 7,500 Goal

Pink Plate Campaign Just 378 Signatures Short of 7,500 Goal

by ECT

Pink Plates

The California Pink Plate Campaign is quickly approaching it goal of 7,500 signatures and as of Saturday morning, its just 36 signatures short.

On August 28, AB 49 (Joan Buchanan) passed the State Assembly by way of a 79-0 vote while the State Senate passed the bill 34-0. It now sits at Governor Jerry Browns desk awaiting signature. If signed, specialty license plates need 7,500 orders before they can be produced.

The Pink Plate campaign was started by four East Contra Costa County cancer survivors (Heather Solari, Chere Rush, Deborah Bordeau and Heather McCullough) nearly two years ago where they brought the idea to Assemblymember Joan Buchanan who then authored AB 49.

The four survivors have held multiple fundraisers to gain signatures such as A’s Games, 49er Games and Relay For Life to help raise awareness of the cause.

According to Solari, they didn’t get the pink in the background as they hoped in the original design but the state of California will officially have a breast cancer awareness plate and the message of early detection saving lives is what is important.

To join the cause and sign up, click here.

Where will the money go?

All funds generated from sales of the California Pink Plate will be deposited into the Breast Cancer Control Account, which funds the Every Woman Counts (EWC) program. EWC is administered by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and provides free clinical breast exams and mammograms to California’s underserved women.

The mission of the EWC is to save lives by preventing and reducing the devastating effects of cancer for Californians through education, early detection, diagnosis, and integrated preventive services, with special emphasis on the underserved. The Every Woman Counts program partners with county departments of public health and county health consortia across California to provide women with local, easy access to screenings.

We know that early detection is critical in treating breast cancer and increasing survival rates. Money generated from the California Pink Plate will allow more women across California to get regular breast exams and mammograms, potentially saving the lives of countless of women.

Here is a look at AB 49

An act to add Section 5156.7 to the Vehicle Code, relating to license plates, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

 

AB 49, Buchanan. License plates: breast cancer awareness.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue specialty license plates, including environmental license plates and specified special environmental design license plates. Under existing law, a state agency is authorized to apply to the DMV to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and the DMV is required to issue those license plates if the agency meets certain requirements. The DMV is required to charge specified fees for certain services related to the issuance of those plates.
Existing law establishes the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund, and requires that funds in that account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated for the provision of early breast cancer detection services for uninsured and underinsured women.
This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to apply to sponsor a breast cancer awareness license plate program, and would require the DMV to issue the license plates if the State Department of Health Care Services meets certain requirements. The bill would authorize the State Department of Health Care Services to accept and use donated artwork from California artists for the license plate. The bill would require the revenue generated from the license plates, as specified, to be deposited in the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 5156.7 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read:

5156.7.

(a) The State Department of Health Care Services shall apply to the department, pursuant to Section 5156, to sponsor a breast cancer awareness license plate program. The department shall issue specialized license plates for that program if the State Department of Health Care Services complies with the requirements of Section 5156.

(b) The State Department of Health Care Services may accept and use donated artwork from California artists for the license plate.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (c) of Section 5157, the additional fees prescribed by Section 5157 for the issuance, renewal, or transfer of the specialized license plates shall be deposited, after the department deducts its administrative costs, in the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund established pursuant to Section 30461.6 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature that the department, in consultation with the State Department of Health Care Services, will design and make available for issuance pursuant to this article special breast cancer awareness license plates. Specifically, it is the intent of the Legislature that the license plates issued pursuant to this section shall consist of a pink breast cancer awareness ribbon to the left of the numerical series and a breast cancer awareness message, such as, “Early Detection Saves Lives,” below the numerical series.

SEC. 2.

This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

In order to ensure that the more than 7,000 California residents who have expressed an interest in a specialized license plate for breast cancer early detection and treatment are able to purchase one, that the specialized plate will be available to all California residents and ubiquitous on the road as a reminder to women to get annual exams, and that funds are generated for deposit in the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund and used for breast cancer early detection efforts, it is necessary that this act take immediate effect.

 

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