Bruin License Plates Face Extinction
Memo to UCLA Bruins:
You blew your lungs out during the big basketball playoffs. You painted your faces blue and gold for the homecoming game.
And yet your school loyalty is being questioned once again.
The challenge comes from the Department of Motor Vehicles, which is threatening to cancel production of a special UCLA license plate--emblazoned with the school’s gold bruin logo--because of low order numbers.
UCLA plates are the lowest selling of all the 10 specialized plates sold by the DMV, with 2,767 registered UCLA plates on the street. Even specialized plates that promote the preservation of Lake Tahoe generate more sales.
“I’m not happy about it,” said Keith Brant, executive director of the UCLA Alumni Assn.
Specialized plates, costing between $20 and $50, are adorned with a design or logo to promote a particular cause, such as the arts, firefighters, veterans and Yosemite. Included in this category are personalized plates, which allow motorists to choose a combination of seven letters and numbers to describe their vehicle (“MOMSCAB”), express their disdain for traffic (“HATE405’) or boast about their hobbies (“ISURF2”).
Proceeds from the sale of these plates benefit the nonprofit organization that sponsor them. In UCLA’s case, the money goes for scholarships.
Overall, the DMV’s 10 specialized plates have generated about $50 million since the program began in 1970, DMV officials said.
But a state law that took effect this year imposes new restrictions on the program. Under the law, the DMV will discontinue any special license plate if there are fewer than 7,500 on the road during a one-year period.
The new law by state Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) is intended to weed out the less popular plates so the DMV can concentrate on those that motorists really want.
For Bruin fans, there is still time to score a come-from-behind victory. The DMV needs to receive orders for another 4,733 Bruin plates by Dec. 31 or the plate will be discontinued.
Brant said the UCLA Alumni Assn. will try to notify alumni about the upcoming deadline, but he added, “We are not doing a major campaign.”
Brant, whose car sports one of the plates, insisted that UCLA alums are not lacking in school spirit. He blamed the meager plate order numbers on the design, which he said is “not terribly desirable.”
“If you look at them at a distance, you can’t even see the design,” he said.
Brant doesn’t know who designed the plates--it was done years ago--and is not sure whether he can request a new design.
Besides, Brant said, some alumni worry that the specialized plates make them targets of anti-UCLA vandalism or taunts. This, of course, is a big concern near the USC campus.
The new state law threatens to bring an end to the Olympic license plate. Only 3,710 motorists have registered Olympic plates. Colored red, white and blue and emblazoned with the five Olympic rings, the plates have raised $1.2 million since they were created in 1990 to support the Olympic training center in San Diego.
But the U.S. Olympic Committee is not going out without a fight. The committee is paying to insert an ad into the 28 million DMV renewal notices that go to motorists each year. The insert will encourage motorists to buy the Olympic plates for $50 each.
“We are hopeful that this DMV insert will produce significant results,” said Mike Moran, spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Moran said interest in the Olympics has dropped because the last Olympic Games were not held in the United States. He predicts that fund-raising will jump as the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, approaches.
Sales of personalized plates by the DMV also generate funds for special causes. Last year, such sales raised more than $27 million for wetlands restoration, erosion control efforts and coastal research programs. The state’s Resources Agency manages and distributes the license plate money to environmental programs throughout the state.
The personalized plates are by far the hottest-selling category for the DMV, with more than 933,100 such plates on bumpers statewide.
The Yosemite plate, among the most popular specialized plates, features a four-color graphic design of the Yosemite Valley. Over the years, it has raised nearly $18 million to restore wilderness trails, bike paths and wildlife habitat in the park and build bear-proof food lockers, said Bernadette Powell, manager of the Yosemite Fund.
The process of creating specialized plates starts with the Legislature, which authorizes new plate designs in response to requests from special interest groups. In recent years, the Legislature has authorized 54 plate designs, including plates approved this year to promote the Girl Scouts, breast cancer research and the Rotary International Foundation.
Until this year, the DMV required at least 5,000 orders for each proposed plate before state officials could order inmates at Folsom state prison to begin plate production. The Karnette law increases that number to 7,500 and requires that motorists keep at least that many plates registered during a one-year period.
Bruins shouldn’t feel bad if the UCLA plate is canceled. A proposed plate featuring former President Ronald Reagan--one of the most popular chief executives in the nation’s history--was authorized by the Legislature in 1999 but was never sent to the prison for pressing. The DMV never received the minimum 5,000 orders to begin production.
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California’s Special Plates
The DMV’s 10 special plates:
* Personalized (benefits environmental programs)
* Arts (pays for arts programs)
* Firefighters (supports memorial fund)
* Kids (benefits child-care licensing and safety reforms)
* Lake Tahoe (funds protection and preservation of the lake)
* Olympic training (supports training center in San Diego)
* UCLA (funds scholarships to the university)
* Veterans (supports veterans service programs)
* Whale Tail (benefits coastal restoration projects)
* Yosemite (funds park improvement efforts)
