Jesse Scheckner
A measure meant to reduce the number of pledges necessary to start printing specialty license plates and add more such tags passed its final Senate committee Thursday.
The bill (SB 364) is now on its way to a full floor vote after encountering some criticism in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Fernandina Beach Republican Sen. Aaron Bean, the bill’s sponsor, has framed the legislation as a way to provide a lifeline to more than 30 specialty license plates state lawmakers approved just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Those plates have yet to cross a 3,000-per-order threshold necessary to be manufactured.
The bill aims to lower that threshold for both in- and out-of-state specialty plates to 2,500 and reset the 24-month clock on how long organizations have to record presales with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV).
Jacksonville Republican Rep. Clay Yarborough’s version of the bill (HB 891) also would extend the presale deadline by 24 months, but it would only reduce the threshold for out-of-state plates to be in line with those in Florida. HB 891 has only been heard in one of two committees to which Speaker Chris Sprowls assigned it.
Bean’s measure also would add specialty license plates for Inter Miami CF, I Make Things, Gopher Tortoises, Down syndrome awareness, A Safe Haven for Newborns, the Pap Champion for Cancer Research, Learn to Fly, Florida Swims and ecotourism. In addition to a planned car plate, the Blue Angels would get a motorcycle tag.
Since 1986, Florida’s specialty license plate program has generated more than $500 million for a variety of causes. That includes $32 million in 2020 alone.
But they’ve become “the legislative equivalent to fool’s gold,” according to St. Petersburg Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes, who agreed to support the measure despite disagreeing with its premise.
Printing specialty license plates, Brandes said, is a passive and often inefficient way for groups to fundraise. And the more plates that are added, the harder it is for organizations already in the process to meet the minimum order requirement.
“They want the state to collect their dollars for them through a process so that they don’t actually have to do the fundraising for their organization, and they expect the state to just pass the dollars on to them (without) a lot of accountability once they get (it),” he said.
“Even with Sen. Bean’s extension, I would imagine that if there’s 33 organizations that are not going to make it today, in 24 months there will be 30 organizations who are not going to make it. And as we continue to add more license plates — not that I’m against adding more license plates, but I do think you need to have common standards and us not continuing to punt on these organizations who can’t get there as we keep trying to keep their hopes and dreams alive — we’re just kind of muddying the water, and it’s a lot of work for DHSMV and everybody else.”
Brandes said organizations have approached him asking for help in getting a plate on Florida’s list of more than 120.
“My first thing is, ‘Just go find some donor with $20,000 and you’ll be much better off than going through the entire process in trying to shuck license plates to every person,’” he said. “Because most of them have an ‘In God We Trust’ or University of Florida (plate), and they’re not going to buy yours.”
Bean conceded everything Brandes said was accurate. Even with the extension, some organizations wouldn’t secure enough plate orders. But there are also many success stories, he said.
“Just this week, I met with executives from Walt Disney who sponsored the Make-A-Wish tag and have already raised — from what we did two years ago — $450,000,” he said. “Sometimes that fool’s gold is real.”
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Renzo Downey of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
