Arts Council: grants.

Existing law, the Dixon-Zenovich-Maddy California Arts Act of 1975, establishes the Arts Council to, among other things, encourage artistic awareness, participation, and expression in the state. The act requires the council to award prizes or direct grants to individuals or organizations in accordance with any regulations promulgated by the council and to accept only unrestricted gifts, donations, bequests, or grants of funds from private sources and public agencies. The act prohibits the council from making any grants or establishing any program that has not been established under the act. Existing law, the Polanco-Bates License Plates for the Arts Act of 1993, requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue, for fees in specified amounts, a special interest license plate bearing a full-plate graphic design that depicts a significant feature or quality of the State of California and is approved by the department in consultation with the California Arts Council. This bill would continuously appropriate from the General Fund to the Arts Council an amount each fiscal year equal to the sum of the amount of revenue generated by the Polanco-Bates License Plates for the Arts Act of 1993 and the amount of private donations received by the council in the most recently concluded fiscal year, and would require the money to be used only to issue grants to further the arts pursuant to the Dixon-Zenovich-Maddy California Arts Act of 1975.