Licensed to Make a Statement -- and Tax the Willing -- in Florida

If protecting dolphins or finding a cure for breast cancer is your cause, Florida has a license plate for you. If you’re more inclined to fishing, golfing or rooting for the Miami Dolphins, no problem. There are vehicle tags for all of that too.

To please constituents, promote worthy endeavors and raise funds in straitened times without taking the politically risky course of increasing taxes, Florida lawmakers had authorized, at last count, 88 specialty license plates that motor vehicle owners can buy for an additional fee of $15 to $25. Fifty-four are now on sale.

For hundreds of thousands of motorists in the Sunshine State, the plates have become an easy, visible way of promoting and supporting a cause, or displaying loyalty as an alumnus or fan. But one influential lawmaker believes the process is “out of control.”

“We don’t need any more license plates,” said state Sen. Ron Klein, Democratic vice chairman of the Florida Senate’s transportation committee. “Where do you draw the line? The number of causes is unlimited; there are thousands, tens of thousands.”

On the rear of the car ahead, a motorist in Florida may now read:

Protect the Panther

Save the Manatee

Protect Wild Dolphins

Golf Capital of the World

Go Fishing

Keep Kids Drug Free

Other specialty plates say: Invest in Children. Share the Road. United We Stand. Support Special Olympics. End Breast Cancer. And more.

Drivers can opt for plates with the logo of their favorite Florida professional sports team, from the Dolphins of the National Football League to the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Assn. There are plates for the state’s universities and colleges. And still others for organizations like the Boy Scouts, Marine Corps and American Red Cross.

The American Assn. of Motor Vehicle Administrators doesn’t keep uniform records for all 50 states, but Florida is hardly alone in embracing license plates as a lucrative revenue source. Lawmakers in Texas have approved more than 100, including “Fight Terrorism.” In Maryland, where any nonprofit group with more than 25 members is entitled to its own special plate, there are nearly 500, including a plate for Corvette lovers.

California, in contrast, has few: 10 for cars, and an additional eight for motorcycles, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles Web site.

The specialty plates, which in Florida are manufactured by inmates in state prisons, are a stealth tax imposed on the willing, Klein notes, like revenues from the state lottery. According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, their sales have raised $235 million since 1987.

“The money received doesn’t go into the general fund,” said Robert Sanchez, department spokesman in Tallahassee. “Trust funds administer the money received for plates of the various environmental causes, such as the manatee, the whale, the dolphin or the Everglades. Money collected from the sale of public universities plates goes into trust funds for the enhancement of the schools, such as scholarships or endowed chairs.”

Depending on the plate, proceeds may benefit stranded marine mammals, bicycle safety or the Police Athletic League.

“The plates provide funds otherwise unavailable,” said Sanchez.

Two years ago, Nancy C. Detert, a Republican in the state House of Representatives, joked that if the number of tags kept expanding, soon Floridians would be able to buy one saying “I Used to Live in Michigan.” But this spring, she successfully championed a plate that reads “Protect Our Reefs,” one of 11 new selections authorized by the Legislature in 2003.

“I admit to having to eat crow,” said Detert, a mortgage broker in the Gulf coast city of Venice. “If we have to find funds in tough economic times, if we have to fund services without raising taxes, specialty plates can help. Health and education will get funds [from general tax revenues]. Saving coral reefs won’t.”

Proceeds from the plate promoted by Detert will help finance a marine laboratory in Sarasota and protect fragile reefs in the Florida Keys, she said. But like Klein, she believes the number of tags for sale may have become too much of a good thing.

“There are so many plates, we can’t even recognize a standard Florida plate,” she said. For the record, it displays an orange and the slogan “Sunshine State.” But according to Sanchez, it is being replaced. Some Floridians, he said, object that the citrus fruit looks like a peach -- the emblem of neighboring Georgia.

With the multiplication of consumer choices, Klein, who is Senate minority leader, said law enforcement officials have begun to complain to him that it’s getting too confusing to recognize a Florida tag, another reason he wants to limit the options.

For while the most popular specialty plate, featuring the endangered Florida panther, sold more than 108,000 copies in 2002, a tag for alumni, faculty, students, families and anyone else with ties to New College in Sarasota was purchased by just 54 people.

Not all ideas for plates survive the legislative process, or state requirements that the promoters collect 15,000 signatures of potential purchasers and pony up $60,000 to cover design and development costs. Among the losers this year were plates honoring Anglo-American unity and promoting dental health.

In 1999, a vehicle plate supported by antiabortion and religious groups, with the slogan “Choose Life” and crayon-like drawings of children, was approved by the Florida Legislature. More than 35,000 were bought last year, with proceeds going to nonprofit groups that ask pregnant women to put unwanted children up for adoption.

For Klein, that plate crossed a red line by advocating what he believes is a political cause.

“I don’t think the state of Florida should be sanctioning pro-life, pro-choice, or a whole litany of other messages,” said the Boca Raton attorney. “They tried to couch it as being about adoption, but I think the message is obvious.”

“Choose Life” survived a court challenge when a Tallahassee judge threw out a lawsuit that contended it was an unconstitutional state-sanctioned expression of religious belief. Last month, a real estate agent in Stuart began gathering signatures for a specialty tag that would carry the message “Trust God” and a cross and fish, common Christian symbols.

“When we have the license plate, when you’re in traffic, maybe stewing about the delays, it will give some cause to consider God and give some thought to what he means to you,” said Susanne Hilton, 46. Proceeds, she said, would be earmarked for Christian causes and charities, including homeless shelters and orphanages.

Officials of the American Civil Liberties Union swiftly objected to Hilton’s idea, saying a state-issued license plate is no place for a religious message. But Hilton said the favorable response has been “tremendous.” In the first three days, she said, hundreds of potential buyers registered on her Web site. She also has a member of the Florida House to act as the tag’s sponsor, she said.

“Other religions would be free to apply for a specialty license plate if they choose to,” Hilton said. “I really don’t think we’ll have a problem in the Legislature.”

Researcher Anna M. Virtue contributed to this report.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Sunshine State specialties

Florida lawmakers have authorized 88 specialty license plates that motor vehicle owners can buy for an additional fee of $15 to $25. Fifty-four are now on sale. A few examples of those produced to promote and support a cause:

Source: Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

Los Angeles Times