Gov. DeSantis signs bill that approves new license plates, relaxes requirements

Florida’s specialty license plate program is on the road to growth, as a new law signed Wednesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis codifies key changes.

Sen. Aaron Bean’s measure (SB 364) will begin the development process for license plates representing Inter Miami CF, Safe Haven for Newborns, Pap Corps Champions for Cancer Research, Learn to Fly, Florida Swims, Down Syndrome Awareness, Take Stock in Children, and Gopher Tortoise.

The Bean bill was tweaked in the back-and-forth of the legislative process, with the Senate acceding to conditions from the House to close the deal.

The original Bean bill sought 150 specialty plates, but legislation passed by the House allows for 135 plates. Currently, 123 plates are available, with another 36 tags in pre-sale status.

Under the new law, 3,000 pre-sales will be required for all plates, including out-of-state colleges, which had been set at 4,000.

One plate was sacrificed: the Senate wanted an Ethical Ecotourism tag in the bill also. That was removed by the House, which did not consider that legislation in committees.

The bill also resets the 24-month clock on how long organizations have to reach the sales threshold number of 3,000.

Of the 60 recently authorized plates, 33 haven’t met the sales threshold required in order to be printed.

The bill won’t materially impact the bottom line of subsidiary governments, argued a staff analysis of the legislation from February: “According to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the bill may have a negative, but insignificant, fiscal impact associated with programming costs. These costs can be absorbed within existing resources.”