The Legislature hereby finds and declares as follows:
(a) Under the state’s previous smog check program, a motor vehicle owner could obtain unlimited repair cost waivers and, therefore, avoid repair of a polluting vehicle.
(b) As a result, many vehicles were reregistered year after year and allowed to continue to pollute the air.
(c) Repairing high-polluting and gross polluting vehicles (which pollute 2 to 25 times more than the average vehicle that passes a smog check) could significantly improve California air quality and allow the state to meet federal clean air goals.
(d) The existing repair cost limit for smog repairs is a minimum of four hundred fifty dollars ($450) in all areas where the enhanced smog check program operates; fifty dollars ($50) to three hundred dollars ($300) based on the model year of the vehicle where the enhanced program is not fully implemented; and no cost limit for the repair of gross polluting vehicles.
(e) Without state financial assistance to repair a vehicle, a low-income vehicle owner is forced to either scrap the vehicle or drive an unregistered vehicle.