NUPL8S 4MORBUX : State Hopes to Raise Money for Threatened Programs by Marketing Vanity Tags
It may not have the appeal of a troll doll, but its backers hope that with some new design touches they can transform the dull California license plate into a hot consumer product.
As the new year begins, California automobile owners can expect a flood of promotions urging them to replace their old plain-Jane tag with a plate that has more pizazz and personality.
The choices they will be offered go beyond vanity plates bearing 10SNE1 (“Tennis anyone?”) and the like. There are plates with symbols such as hearts, stars or hands, plates with a mountain scene or an artsy drawing for the background and plates with logos of various parks and veterans organizations.
“These will definitely, dramatically change the face of the California license plate,” said Bill Madison of the Department of Motor Vehicles’ public information unit.
Originally designed in 1905 as a device for identifying what was then thought to be a passing fad--horseless carriages--the license plate of the 1990s is no longer just a tool for law enforcement. In the era of government programs that are increasingly short of funds, state agencies and nonprofit organizations have turned to the California license plate as a commodity to be marketed as a source of revenue.
Their hope is that the same impulses that prompt people to buy sleek sports cars or luxury sedans will make them invest an extra $20 to $50 in a jazzy license plate.
The extra fee would be levied in addition to the regular license and registration charges that vary according to the age and value of the automobile.
An array of programs will be financed by the extra fees, including inspections of child-care centers, child abuse prevention, veterans services, art education, state parks projects, and preservation and restoration projects at Yosemite National Park.
“You basically have to come up with an inventive idea that is not going to cost the state or taxpayers any money if you’re going to fund new programs or even guarantee that old ones are not cut substantially,” said Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame), who sponsored legislation establishing license plates that would finance specific children’s programs.
Speier said she decided to advocate a license plate bill after she discovered that child abuse programs had been cut and child-care licensing inspections had been virtually abolished in the state’s effort to reduce costs. Not only had the cuts created the bizarre situation where dog kennels were regularly inspected more often than child-care facilities, but the reductions had come as California was reporting the most child abuse deaths in the nation, she said.
“The resources for children’s services were being reduced dramatically and we had to find a way to stop the hemorrhaging. We decided we had to come up with a new revenue source,” she said.
But Speier was not the only one to seize on the idea of using license plates to raise money. So did the California Arts Council, the Yosemite Foundation, veterans organizations and the Department of Parks and Recreation, all of which pursued legislation establishing special plates as a way of raising money.
Not everyone is cheering them on, however. The proliferation of so many different designs is drawing opposition from law enforcement organizations. They complain that the original purpose of the license plate may be undermined.
The new designs, they argue, will make it harder for police or witnesses to tell a California license from that of other states, much less get an accurate reading of the inscription on it.
“It’s a real, real problem for us,” said Al Cooper, a lobbyist for the California State Sheriffs’ Assn. and California Police Chiefs Assn. “It’s taken away from the whole idea of what the license plate was for. Now it’s just strictly another way to raise revenue.”
Sympathetic to law enforcement complaints, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Panorama City), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, argued against allowing a profusion of new plates. But the license plate bills were approved by wide margins as legislators expressed their reluctance to oppose measures that would help fund what they considered good causes.
“Who wants to knock something that will help children’s programs or veterans or the environment?” one state official said.
Counting the latest varieties approved, Katz estimated that California has added about a dozen designs to its license plates over the last two years, although he noted that not all ideas would be accepted. A bill that was introduced and then killed this year would have allowed a plate with an anti-abortion message, displaying a picture of a fetus.
“The point of a license plate has always been to identify the vehicle and the owner. License plates were not created as a revenue generator for agencies or as a way for people to politically express themselves. That’s what bumper stickers are for,” Katz said.
Speier insisted, on the contrary, that the precedent for allowing a variety of license plate designs had been set as early as 1970, when vanity plates were introduced as a means of financing environmental programs. For an extra fee, car owners are permitted to pick any group of seven letters and numbers that they want on their plates as long as they are not obscene and have not already been issued.
“We intend to market the kids plate aggressively and I think it has the broadest appeal because it’s a takeoff on the personalized plate,” said Speier, who has lined up the Target, J.C. Penney and Mervyn stores to distribute applications for the tag. As she envisions the plate, each applicant will be allowed to add one symbol--a heart, a hand, a star or a plus sign--to a combination of six letters and numbers.
The California Arts Council, meanwhile, believes it has an edge on the competition because its plate will be less expensive. It will initially sell for $20, while the veterans plate will cost $30, a heritage plate to fund parks projects will cost $40 and the children’s and Yosemite plates will cost $50.
Concerned that the program would get out of hand, Katz was able to attach some conditions to the legislation that he said will make the license plate program more manageable. Each agency or organization will be required to get at least 5,000 car owners to apply and pay the fee for their particular license plate before it can go into production. The new plates will be manufactured by inmates at Folsom prison near Sacramento.
The sponsors of the bills have a year to collect the 5,000 applications; once that is done the Department of Motor Vehicles will take over the sale of the plate. The initial purchasers of the new plate will not receive their tags until the department has approved it for production.
The deadline for gathering the 5,000 applications has produced vigorous competition among the backers of some of the new plates.
Speier thinks that with the right kind of marketing there will be enough demand to fund all the programs without cutting into the sales of vanity plates. Even without any promotion, she said, vanity plates produce about $30 million a year for environmental programs and are sold to about 1% of car owners. “We think there are some real opportunities out there to raise a substantial amount of revenue,” she said.
Say It With Plates
Seeking new sources of revenue, the state is planning to offer vehicle license plates that go beyond mere vanity plates. If enough motorists sign up, Californians will be able to buy plates with symbols to form messages like these or others featuring scenery or logos for veterans groups or favorite parks.
