Senate panel backs bill to raise cost of vanity plates

By: Jim Nolan | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: January 30, 2009

The cost of Virginia's motor vehicle vanity could double under a license plate bill approved today by the Senate Transportation Committee.

Senate Bill 1167, sponsored by Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, would give the Department of Motor Vehicles the authority to charge motorists up to $20 a year to maintain or purchase personalized license plates. The current fee for such plates is $10.

DMV officials estimate the bill could raise an additional $1.5 million for the agency.

Currently, 830,000 motorists in Virginia have personalized plates, among the largest concentrations in the nation. Virginia's fee for the plates is also among the least expensive in the country.

The number includes average citizens who choose their own combination of seven letters or numbers, and a number of public officials who are issued numbers based upon their standing in government, such as the 140 members of the General Assembly.

Given the volume of personalized plate holders, the relatively inexpensive price and DMV's administrative costs, Watkins said he felt it would be appropriate to "gently move the price of those vanity plates up and make sure we all are as vain as we thought we were."

"These vanity plates are voluntary there is nobody required to get a vanity plate," said Watkins, who noted that the fee has never been raised since the state began offering the plates in the 1970s.

The measure passed the committee by a vote of 8-4, with two abstentions. It was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

The surcharge would not affect specialty plates, such as those designating military honors. It would also not increase the cost for randomly numbered and lettered plates that use one of 200 different plate background styles provided by DMV.

The bill would give DMV authority to raise the vanity plate price up to $10, but not beyond that amount.

DMV officials said it was also likely that the surcharge, if enacted by the General Assembly and signed by the governor, would not take place this year.

Two bills that dramatically increase the requirements of seat belt usage and the ability to enforce violations of the law cleared the committee.

Senate Bill 1161, sponsored by Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, would make failure to buckle up in the front seat of a car a primary offense, meaning officers would only need to observe seat belt noncompliance to pull over a vehicle and issue a ticket for the offense.

Senate Bill 1502, sponsored by Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax, would require all passengers in a vehicle to be bucked up. Currently only front seat passengers and children under 16 must wear seat belts.

Under both bills, individual tickets would be issued to all adult passengers who fail to buckle up.

In lobbying for his bill, Saslaw said 26 states and the District of Columbia have primary offense seat belt laws. He cited statistics showing that 452 of the 1026 highway fatalities in the commonwealth last year involved victims who were not belted in their vehicles.

Committee opponents of the primary offense seat belt bill expressed concern that the measure would potentially give police too much discretion to pull over motorists and conduct unjustified searches or investigations.

Similar bills have passed the committee in the past, only to die in the House.

Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or jnolan@timesdispatch.com.