(a)
The Controller shall transfer the amount of six hundred sixty-five million two hundred sixty-one thousand dollars ($665,261,000) from the General Fund to the Smog Impact Fee Refund Account, which is hereby created in the Special Deposit Fund.
(b)
Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, the moneys in the Smog Impact Fee Refund Account in the Special Deposit Fund are hereby continuously appropriated, without regard to fiscal years, to the Department of Motor Vehicles for the purpose of making refunds to persons who paid the smog impact fee formerly required by Chapter 3.3 (commencing with Section 6261) upon registering a vehicle in California. Each refund shall also include the amount of any penalties incurred by the payer with respect to the fee, and shall also include interest as specified in Sections 1673.2 and 1673.4 of the Vehicle Code. In addition, the appropriate level of court costs, fees, and expenses in the settlement of the case of Jordan v. Department of Motor Vehicles (1999) 75 Cal.App.4th 449, shall be determined through binding arbitration, and all of those fees, costs, or expenses shall be paid with funds from the account.
(c)
The amount of any refund made under Section 1673.2 or Section 1673.4 of the Vehicle Code that is returned to the Department of Motor Vehicles because the recipient’s mailing address as shown by the records of the department is incorrect shall be retained in the Smog Impact Fee Refund Account in the Special Deposit Fund until either of the following occurs:
(1)
The department is able to ascertain the correct address of the recipient, at which time the refund shall be mailed to that address.
(2)
The date upon which those funds are transferred from the Smog Impact Fee Refund Account in the Special Deposit Fund back to the General Fund.
(d)
Any unencumbered balance remaining in the account on or after June 30, 2004, shall revert to the General Fund.
(e)
The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the amount appropriated under subdivision (b) is a refund of taxes, as described in subdivision (a) of Section 8 of Article XIII of the Constitution, and, as a result, is not included within the “appropriations subject to limitation” of the state, as defined in that subdivision (a).