[Rick Parker]

This is all about money. The air quality in the San Joaquin Valley has been on a steady decline causing the Feds to withhold mass amounts of Federal Funding money unless certain standards are met. Hundreds of thousands of people migrated (were pushed) from the SF bay in an effort to find affordable housing and then many enter the daily commute traffic heading back to their jobs on a daily basis. Many driving 125 miles one way (or more). With the amount of commuting that is done within the Valley on an everyday occasion it becomes increasing difficult to point fingers. When entering the Valley you can see the layer hanging in the air.
I read recently that instead of having official complete Smog checks done every 2 years in conjunction with our registration renewal, (as we do now) there are plans to require it to be done yearly. Effectively doing away with the "Test Only Shops" that we had to go to in alternate years as well. This will effectively raise the revenue recieved by the state for each registration by (currently $8.25) which is the amount the smog shops pay the state for each Smog Certificate, not to mention the $$$ they actually charge for actually performing the Smog Check.
Occasionally (Rarely) I see one of the smelly vehicles in traffic and they are obviously quite "Dirty" and generally not well kept. This what we perceive this to be aimed at but in reality it is the $$ that will be created by requiring the pool of vehicles to be required to be checked annually. It would perhaps force the vehicles off the road if the owners could not effectively repair them.