Plain Vanilla, Please

The Senate Transportation Committee had a good policy--no specialized license plates in addition to the confusing welter already available in California. That should have stopped a bill by Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) to create a special plate honoring former Gov. and President Ronald Reagan, 88 and suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Sales would raise money for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

Alas, Senate leaders caved in to the fuss raised by Strickland and others who contended that foes were opposing the Reagan plate for political reasons. The policy dissolved. A hearing was held Tuesday and the Assembly-passed bill won committee approval.

In fact, the opposition was just good sense. Beginning with an Olympics plate, California has offered a variety of special-interest tags with their own graphics. Some are hard to read, and law enforcement doesn’t like them. And so far, no plate has featured a personality, let alone a political figure.

If there is a Reagan plate, surely someone will propose a plate honoring former Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown. Then who? Former Gov. Pete Wilson? Richard M. Nixon? Bill Clinton? A “Star Wars” character? Austin Powers?

Perhaps Senate leaders will reconsider--or at least amend the bill to limit special plates to a specific period, perhaps five years.

Ultimately, California should return to a single, uncluttered license plate with letters and numbers that can easily be read by law officers or crime witnesses. That’s the purpose of plates: identification.