This just in from the DMV:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2008FOUR NEW LICENSE PLATES AVAILABLE
Blythewood, SC – The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (SCDMV) announced today the availability of four new specialty license plates.
The Boy Scouts of America, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Surfrider Foundation license plates are now available in SCDMV offices across the state. The fee for the Boy Scouts of America or the National Multiple Sclerosis Society license plate is $30 every two years in addition to the regular motor vehicle registration fee. The fee for the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. license plate is
$70 in addition to the regular fee, and the Surfrider Foundation plate is $65.00 in addition to the regular fee.
The Boys Scouts of America, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Surfrider Foundation plates are available to the general public and have no special requirements for obtaining the plates. To obtain the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., plate, customers must be a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and must present a current sorority financial card, a certificate of membership, or a letter from the national office stating membership in the organization.
A portion of the fees collected for the Boy Scouts of America and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society license plates will be distributed directly to those organizations. A portionof the fees for the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. will be used for academic scholarships.
The Surfrider Foundation will use a portion of its collected fees for environmental projects and education initiatives.
To view images of all the specialty license plates currently available, visit the SCDMV Web site at www.scdmvonline.com.#####
Just what we needed — MORE special license plates. Basically, our position around here is that the state should not be in the business of providing a fund-raising service for private entities. More than that, the purpose of a license plate is essentially a law enforcement one — they should be quickly identifiable as SC plates, which is a standard that all these special vanity plates blow out of the water. Take a look at them all. At this rate, we all might as well get a piece of sheet metal and some paint and make our own.
Here are a couple of our editorials on the subject, both from 2006:
VETO BILL THAT TURNS STATE INTO PRIVATE GROUPS’ FUND-RAISER
Published on: 06/29/2006
Section: EDITORIAL
Edition: FINAL
Page: A10IF EVER THERE was a bill that should attract the veto of Gov. Mark Sanford, it’s one the Legislature passed in its special wrap-up session to turn the state government into a fund-raiser for pretty much any nonprofit that demands it.
Talk about your expansion of government and assaults on the free market.
Fund-raising is big business in this country. The prospect of having to do it is what keeps many a good person from running for office; the failure to do it well is what keeps many a good politician from winning office. And, in the area that is relevant to this latest legislative boondoggle, fund-raising is what tops the list of things that keep officials with
most nonprofits awake nights: It either takes a tremendous amount of time and groveling, if you do it yourself, or a lot of, well, money, if you hire someone to do it for you.
But never fear. If they accomplished nothing else this year, our lawmakers at least came up with a way to ease the burden for charitable groups, "social and recreational clubs" and fraternal societies: Not only will state government do their fund-raising for them, but, unlike professional fund-raisers, the government won’t even take a cut of the haul; it could only charge its "clients" the actual cost of doing their work for them.
That’s right. Astounding as it sounds, the Legislature actually passed a bill this month that requires our state government to raise money for any 501(c)3, 501(c)7 or 501(c)8 organization that asks it to.
Worse, the part of our government that the Legislature wants to press into providing this most generous public subsidy is one that uses the police powers of the state.
The bill would let any of these groups demand that the state Department of Motor Vehicles print up special license plates of their liking, charge whatever price they set and then send said groups a check for the difference between that price and the cost to the state of producing the plates. They need only meet a 400-tag minimum.
The idea isn’t new. Lawmakers have been handing out this generous public subsidy to their special friends for years now. But this year, they finally got tired of having to sign off individually on each group, so they passed a bill opening up the floodgates. And why not? It’s not like they were actually making sure the groups whose emblems were going on our official state license plates were reputable.
The bill does allow a special legislative committee to review the fund-raising license tags
and do away with "a plate it deems offensive or fails to meet community standards." But there’s no provision for deciding that the state just shouldn’t be subsidizing a particular organization. And since 501(c)7s are free to spend as much money as they want on lobbying and electioneering, who knows? We could one day see some of those offensive, misleading campaign attack ads that are brought to you by the work of the good folks at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
We wish we could explain what has come over our Legislature, but we can’t. We can only call on Mr. Sanford to stand up for his belief that government should do only those things that only government can do, and veto this outrageous bill. We need to get back to using license plates for their intended purpose – aiding in law enforcement, and making sure cars are properly licensed and insured and that taxes are paid on them – and let nonprofit groups get back to doing their own fund-raising.All content © THE STATE and may not be republished without permission.
That bill DID become law, by the way. The other editorial:
USE LICENSE TAGS TO IDENTIFY CARS, NOT RAISE MONEY
Published on: 04/13/2006
Section: EDITORIAL
Edition: FINAL
Page: A8THE LAST TIME we tried to make this point, people who didn’t want to hear it jammed their fingers in their ears and started screaming "anti-Confederate flag bigots" – even though our point had nothing to do with the flag.
So now that the issue is back before us once again – this time in the context of several somewhat less divisive organizations – we’ll try again: The government of South Carolina has no business becoming a fund-raiser and bill collector for private organizations.
Several bills approved recently by the House or Senate would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to create and sell specialty license plates at a premium price, and send the extra money to private groups – the Boy Scouts, the Friends of Hunting Island State Park, the Cancer Research Centers of the Carolinas and two state chapters of the Alzheimer’s Association, the latter two from the sale of Parrot Head license plates. One bill even requires the state to use its police power to punish anyone who doesn’t surrender his tag if he quits the group it features.
A law already on the books requires the DMV to create special license plates for any nonprofit group that can guarantee at least 400 people will purchase them. But that law only allows the proliferation of virtually unlimited different varieties of official S.C. license tags – 77 at last count. Special laws such as the ones for the Boy Scouts and Parrot Heads (and the S.C. Nurses Foundation, Camp Sertoma, the Palmetto Cycling Coalition, Rotary International, the S.C. Junior Golf Association, the National Wild Turkey Federation, and on
and on) turn the tags into fund-raising tools, by adding a hefty extra fee that goes to the designated charity.
Fund-raising is one of the biggest expenses for most nonprofits. But those groups that manage to win legislative favor get to turn that work over to the state, at no charge. That’s not fair to the groups that don’t get that service, and it’s an abuse of state resources.
We would prefer to have a single state license plate for the general public. But if that’s impossible, we at least should stop using license tags for anything more than their intended purposes – aiding in law enforcement, and making sure cars are properly licensed and insured and that taxes are paid on them.
If even that isn’t possible, we should at least limit our DMV fund-raising to governmental entities, such as the Education Department (the apple tags) and public colleges. At least we have some accountability from them.
With private organizations, where’s the accountability for how the money the state collects is spent? For that matter, how do we even know the state is donating its services to reputable organizations?
We assume all of these groups in line to have the state do their fund-raising are reputable, but we haven’t looked into them. Has the Legislature? Will it? And will it look into them again next year, and the year after that, and on and on for as long as the state solicits money on their behalf?
Will the state keep a close eye on all the other private groups it is donating public resources to subsidize?
We all know the answer to those questions, and it’s not one that justifies the license plate fund-raising program. Lawmakers should reject all of these bills. Then they should get to work repealing all the other special fund-raising deals.All content © THE STATE and may not be republished without permission.
There are many things state government should do. Subsidizing the Parrot Heads is not one of them.
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Thank you for supporting the Libertarian view of the role of government.
It’s too bad Governor Sanford does not have the authority to kill this program (which I have no doubt he would) — the purpose of which is to give politicians one more item to add to their “see what I’ve done for the community” checklist when they run for re-election. But then we’d get all the wailing and gnashing of teeth from all corenrs about how the Governor is not working with the Legislature to compromise.
One license plate style is all we need. Everything else is pandering and window dressing.
I agree, Doug, except for one thing: While there should be one, simple, easily identifiable style or template, I think we should add a county identifier. That could be an aide to law enforcement — “the kidnapper was seen driving a red pickup truck with Richland County SC plates.”
Doug, remember the controversy about the Carolina Wren license plate a few years back? That was really much ado about nothing. But since it gets people so worked up why don’t we just have a plain black on white plate that is easy to read with no emblems of any kind. There would be not special plates. No special message plates, just one style, period.
Hey, I’ll go with that! I’m getting tired of riding around with a plate that looks so much as if it ought to say ‘eat more broccoli’ on it. And a Carolina Wren with a droopy tail??? Oh, say it isn’t so!
Funny. I used to feel the way y’ all do, but unless the state mandates I buy one of these special plates and pay extra, I don’t much care now.
I’d guess law enforcement officers would learn the spectrum of special plates pretty quickly, but should recognizing such a plate prove a problem for them, then I’d find it objectionable.
Me, I like my Clemson plate. 🙂
While we’re on the subject of pet peeves here’s mine: The Penny. Why do we continue to mint pennies at a significant cost to the government when they essentially have no value? Can’t we just do away with the penny and just round every purchase to the nearest $.05. A purchase of $17.01 should never require coin change, yet on occassion a clerk will count out $2.99 when handed a $20 bill. Tha happened to me recently at an ice cream store. I had an order for a penny over the nearest dollar amount and I didn’t have a penny. Most places would simply forfeit the penny but not that place. I ended up with $.99 in change.
This is, of course, a very minor inconvenience. Still, if we quit minting pennies wouldn’t that save a few million dollars a year for the treasury? And in these tight times every penny counts.
La figure humaine, apr s avoir disloqu en cinquante ans…
Thank you for supporting the Libertarian view of the role of government.
It’s too bad Governor Sanford does not have the authority to kill this program (which I have no doubt he would) — the purpose of which is to give politicians one more item to add to their “see what I’ve done for the community” checklist when they run for re-election.