S.B. 273 License Plate Amendments: transcript

Thank you. Remind me of the bill number again. Sorry.

What's that? Oh, just apparently I'm not in great shape. Who knew? So, hang on. All right. Okay. Uh, there is a lot in this bill, bless its heart. Uh, I'm gonna learn my lesson this year and next time break it up into lots of different subject matters because it's easier to vote. One of them 1 0 1, I've always tried to make them smaller, but Senate Bill 1 73, uh, is a culmination of, or 2 73 is, is the culmination of trying to work on different ways of doing license plates. Um, a couple years ago, we changed the process to make it so that, um, uh, you know, to remove the front license plate, uh, that saved the division, saved the, saved the state money. Uh, the other thing we did was we took and made it centrally distributed. Instead of having license plates that are at each one of the dealerships throughout the, and, and the counties, uh, and the county offices, et cetera, we instead, um, you know, have someone submit their request for a license plate. The license plate then is ordered and is, uh, processed through the prison, and then is sent to them. They can get a custom plate, uh, or they can get their, you know, uh, whatever chosen design it may be. We also created the design revert re, uh, review committee. Um, that is in the process of working on, uh, various, uh, plate redesigns in working with the, uh, standard plate process. So, um, 2 73 is kind of the continuation of improving that business model, working with the tax commission heavily, working with the tax commission and heavily working with the license plate bureau and license plate, uh, decisions as well as UCI and, uh, and their requirements. Um, I'm gonna read it actually from my other document 'cause it's a little easier. Um, one of the things we're, we're working on is, we're, one of the big policy changes is the special group licensing plate process. Right now, if somebody wants to do a special group licensing, uh, special group plate, their process is, they will then they will fill out an application. They will go out and they will find 500 people, and that those people will give money to the individual. Then that money comes into the state. The state then has that money they go to and get a design. And then, you know, it just takes some time to get all that stuff implemented. And in the process of getting all that design work done, uh, what we found is that can be very frustrating. Other states have gone to a different process. And so the goal is try and change it to this process. Um, instead of having people buy 500 plates, uh, or have a group buy 500 plates, uh, to get it over that goal line and, and then, you know, be there and then eliminate plates, uh, that fall below that 500 line, we're trying to shift the business model so that someone will come in, they'll fill out an application. That application will then in will include a fee. And those fees, uh, you know, are related to programming costs, design costs, and all those costs. It's roughly, and I can't remember the exact numbers from the bill, but it's roughly provider's, like $20,000. They'll submit that to, uh, the, uh, the department or the division. And then, uh, with this bill, they will then, um, fill out, or they will then have the ability, after the application's complete, they will then have the ability to go and recruit people to sign up to be interested for the plate. So instead of having 500 people that actually buy the plate, there are 250 people that are going to be interested in the plate. We will have already had the money for programming in the past. We were waiting for them to design or to, to order all those plates so that they could then get the money to then design and work through the other parts of the programming process, et cetera. This really does flip it on its head. We accept the fee up front, then they get the 250 people, 250 people say they're good. We design the plate and it's approved, and then it gets just sold on the website. No longer is there weird, um, the state takes money and holds onto it while people are working on getting the number of plates, no more. Um, you know, just go through all of the, the problems that could come up with that, with that plate process. Um, let's see. Lemme pull up the rest of the issues in the bill. Uh, let's see. It deals with, um, the replacement and requirement of replacement for faded license plates. Uh, so this is one issue we've seen throughout the state, uh, that at, you know, after a plate is 20, 25 years old, something like that, it's no longer visible in some instances where it doesn't meet the contrast ratio required for license plate readers or for any of, you know, for any of the other components. Um, and so the idea is, uh, change and make it so that they have to get a new plate, uh, and no longer, you know, just drive around. And I've seen actually some plates, I was gonna show it to you on a presentation, but I decided not to, uh, to protect the person's privacy. Uh, but I, I, I saw a plate not too long ago that was just all chrome, and you cannot tell, uh, as you can kind of see a faded Utah ish to it, but the rest of the plate was just metal. Uh, and that does not help law enforcement. It doesn't help LP, you know, the LPR process doesn't do any of those things. So it has, that, uh, has that process as well. One of the other things it does is it has a rotating process for the issuance of standard plates. Like I've said before, we currently have authorized in statute to have four standard plates. That four standard plate process is really causing, uh, you know, some interesting, uh, components. But one of the things that it does is, um, the, the designs themselves, there's no incentive to update 'em. But, uh, they're also, that we have 50 states right now. Uh, where of the 50 states, guess how many states have four standard plate designs? One Utah. Yeah. So, so the idea is try to create a rotating system. Um, what we're looking at with the standardized plates in this process will probably start this next year, is having a, uh, an, an updating process as we go through to update. Like, you know, nobody wants to update Arches, but, you know, looking at, uh, at faster it does, it does. And it turns pink. Uh, so, you know, so we're looking at actually looking at some different colors for Arches, uh, to try and make it last a little bit longer and, and find some of those things. Um, but having two standardized plates and having the design review board be rotating those plates. One thought is that you create, and I'm not necessarily married to this idea, but this is what another state does, uh, is you come up with a new plate and you charge a small fee for that new plate, you know, 20, I think it's $20 in the bill. And that, you know, when it's a new plate, everybody's really excited about the design. So they're willing to pay a little bit for the new plate, like they were the black plate. And so they'll pay a little bit more for, uh, for that plate the next year or maybe year after. It becomes one of the standard plates that then is given out for free, uh, as part of the standard plate process. Um, the, the big risk, and, and I've, I've actually heard this from the, uh, from tourism, and we're trying to figure this out. So this, this isn't landed yet, and it may go away, honestly. Um, but, you know, the folks at Ski Utah really like their plate and they want it to always be available. And the, you know, the, uh, the National Park folk folks, they want the standard plate for Arches to always be available. Um, I'm not gonna show you them now, but there have been designs submitted just actually from the public of other cool ways to look at our national parks. It wasn't just Arches and another one for Dinosaur land art, you know, that's not National Park, but another one for Dinosaur Land. There's another one for Canyons. And there was, you know, just different things. Another one for Lake Powell, I've seen some of these that are just awesome, and it would be cool to have this type of, uh, to have that kind of rotation process. But I'm willing to change things more frequently than other people are. And so I recognize, uh, that I might be on the bleeding edge of that. And that's why the rotation process may not be, uh, the strongest part of this bill, as we may hear from others. But I'm still working with everybody for that. Uh, let's see there, um, let's see. It changes the design approval process for special group plates. That's a minor change, uh, won't matter that much. Um, and let's see. Uh, there, uh, and, and we had a problem, not really a problem, but it wasn't drafted, uh, the way we thought it was. And so we're doing some cleanup language about how the state tax commission hires a designer who then, you know, helps work with these special groups that come forward with these plates. Um, with that, oh, uh, the other thing on line 22, um, it does, so right now we have a, uh, in two years from now, our state driver's license will be up for redesign as well. And so, um, right now, uh, in talking to DPS and others, they're, um, you know, they, they worry about when they make big decisions about things without, you know, uh, someone to bounce things off of a review. And I'm not, you know, uh, there's, there have been, I'm not particularly crazy about the way Utah has written on the driver's license. And so, uh, the idea of adding the driver's license as something that the review board would review to get ready for two years from now would be helpful, as well as we talked with DPS and the driver's license division. So that's, that's line 22. I'm happy to answer any questions, Mr. Chairman. Uh, should there, uh, when there are some,

I have a couple of questions. Uh, the current, this probably isn't really related to this bill, but I think you're busy enough in this space. You can answer this question. Mm-hmm. The current specialty plates, is there any talk of removing some of those?

Well, um, that's a great question. Yes. We have an automatic removal for those that do not maintain the 500 threshold. Currently in this bill, we're taking that threshold down to 250.

Okay. So that some, I I will just say one that is, is makes me sad that it's kind of going away, uh, is, um, the, the license plate for Westminster College.

So in this bill, what will happen, so the 200 Will clear them. What will happen is let me, lemme tell you what the bill says and let's, I'm happy to take feedback and come up with a different idea. Um, the bill says this will do 250 is the minimum now, and if you're under 250, there will be a nominal fee, I think it's $5 that will be charged to the special group plate holder. And that $5 will pay for the administration and upkeep of the plate, uh, to be active in the system. It's Still $5 in Addition, in addition to the $20 that, that is already in statutory minimum, Somebody would pay that. Yeah. So they would pay it. No, I'm saying So somebody would donate that fee. Yeah. Somebody Yeah, that, that's right. They're paying it. It's not the, not snow college. In that situation, it would be the license, the special group license plate holder, they'd pay an additional $5 and that will keep the plate active in the system and people can still order it until it gets below 50. And then once it gets below 50, then we're saying it's probably not popular enough. I'm not married to that number of 50. What I'm trying to do is, we've had a disincentive to have plates. That's why that number is so high at 500. And so if we want to come up with a different in incentive, it was how do we, you know, keep the program alive and keep that plate alive so they don't have to go back through the $20,000 process. Right. To restart it and get 250 people and go through all that needlessly instead of doing that. Right. They pay a nominal fee. And, you know, that $5 times 250 or less plates, we'll keep that plate active and I'm happy if we want to go down to 25 or something. But it, that's just the number

On those university college plates. But you missed my point. Mm-hmm. Instead of charging the people, what if someone that was to donate sum of money to augment that plate, Um, I'm, I'm interested, let's, you know, let's look at what that would look like. Um, 'cause you know, somebody can do, it's No college plate to go away. You don't want it to go away. Correct. And

I'm, so, I will do what I have to do. And I think that's fine. Um, you and I can look at that. What I, what I'd suggest is in the bill right now, we will prevent it from going away because everybody who has a plate will be, you know, contributing that donation. Uh, and we'll protect it. But certainly let's talk online. 'cause maybe there's an alternative we can find.

Now the other question I have is, is rotating the standard plate. Does that, is that gonna create confusion to the people that are administering this program? In talking with the tax commission and talking with the people that have, you know, that we've run through the process with, it's easy. It, sorry, it is programmable and administrable Doesn't, cause it looks to me like it's a nightmare. But

Every year in, I think September, October, I think is what the bill calls for, is in the fourth quarter sometime the design review committee will decide which two plates are the standard plates for the following year. That gets programmed into the system. By January one, people start ordering which of the standard plates and which ones they're paying the 20 bucks. For, for a new, for a plate that's out of cycle. The only Problem is you've got the cost of replacing the plate. Um, in which situation, I Apologize. So you're No, that's not right. 'cause they will, they will be issued, the other plates will stay plates. Yep. That's right. Right. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. I'd make a motion that this bill pass with a favorable Senate bill 2 73 pass with a favorable recommendation. Okay.

Thank you. Um, the, I want to just add one more thing, uh, that is, I can't remember if it's in this yet or if it's going to be coming soon. So I'll just add that as a, as a placeholder. Um, if you'll, if you want to Google, uh, or, you know, look up on the internet, uh, have fun with it. Look up, uh, low number plate auctions. And you'll see for one example, the state of Delaware, uh, they have a plate, uh, that sold. It was a low number, uh, bill or a low number plate, and it sold for $675,000 that the state was, you know, they did an auction for low number plates. Now people are willing to pay vanity, you know, number for vanity plates, et cetera. Right. And so it, it, I think I need to figure out if it's in the bill, but that, that's something I'm, I'm, we're working on adding, if it's not there, um, I apologize, uh, should have that memorized. I don't off the top of my head, but this allowance for the tax commission to review or to, to do some research and like look into and have some administrative rule authority to potential have an auction for low digit plates, uh, from a vanity perspective is, uh, the other thing that we're considering. Um, if, you know, my goodness, if we could have one plate that the state sold for, you know, even half that 300,000 would be amazing to, I, it baffles me for, you know, for people to have, be willing to pay that plate. But they really are. So I, I would check that. Not a variety Place, but I don't know that I'm that crazy. Yeah. Well, I should look and see if Don is available. But yeah. Anyway, so my summation is I appreciate the support. We're, we are still working on, uh, a few issues, including, if you look on the fiscal note, how it's funded, the bill does raise money, but that money goes into one restricted account and then it costs us money. So we're trying to figure out can we use the money that it raises to pay for the fiscal note component. So we're working on that as well. But that's my summation. Mr. Chairman. Thank

for summation. I'll waive. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks. Um, you know, the, there was desire in, in taking us down to having two standard plates at any one time. Uh, after significant conversations, we're gonna take the rotation piece out and consider it further at another time. For right now, the first sub, all it does is removes the rotation piece from from the license plate bill.

Thank you Mr. President. Okay. Senate Bill 2 73 is a pretty simple bill that has a, uh, some, you know, some interesting parts to it. One, it amends the design approval process for special group plates. Uh, it changes the design review boards, uh, duties and responsibilities and how they deal with and handle designers. Um, it, uh, it also, uh, puts the driver's license identification card as part of the design review port. Um, and, you know, the update that needs that will be forthcoming on that process in the near future. Uh, it also deals with visibility and readability of license plates, including, uh, uh, this yesterday I was on the, actually it was this morning. I was, it all runs together at this point. It's on the highway and there was a plate that was all metal. And, uh, from now on, uh, there'll be a requirement to replace those all metal so that you can tell what state they're from. Uh, it's in code now, but it isn't, uh, there isn't a tool that you know, uh, provides for or requires that replacement. Um, this also has the ability and creates the opportunity in the special group plate, um, you know, for how those funds are allocated. And the last part is, uh, it creates, uh, some ability for, um, for the tax commission to create what would be a low digit plate lottery or Loa or, sorry, not lottery, uh, auction. Uh, with that Mr. President, I'm happy to deal with questions.

Thank you. I'll move that First substitute Senate Bill 2 73.