Redesign proposal would make expired plates easier to spot

A state senator's proposal to redesign Missouri's license plates making it easier for police to spot expired plates not only has police support but also has found favor as a potential revenue generator.

If Sen. Jon Dolan's bill, SB 1251, which is supported by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, becomes law, a committee would be formed to design the new license plates. They would be issued beginning in January 2006.

Dolan, R-Lake St. Louis and chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, introduced the bill to the committee Tuesday. He has two Transportation Committee bills scheduled to come up for a final vote that he plans to attach this bill to, making it possible it will be signed into law this session.

Dolan aide Trent Watson said there may not be time to send the bill through the normal channels.

In the city of St. Louis alone, more than 86,000 reports of stolen tags or plates were made in recent years, Watson said. Dolan thinks people are stealing the tags from the license plates, or the plates themselves, for various reasons: They hadn't paid their personal property taxes, their vehicle wouldn't pass inspections, or they hadn't paid the sales tax on their vehicle.

Not only is this an extra aggravation for the owner of the stolen license tags, it's a loss of revenue for the state and for communities. Half of the license fee goes to the state's general revenue. The other half goes into the road fund.

"Every dollar we can get for the roads is needed," Watson said.

Since 1996, when the state switched from the maroon plates to the blue and white ones currently in use, police officers have been not able to spot at a glance which plates were expired -- another source of lost revenue.

With the old plates, the first letter indicated the month the plate expired. All a police officer had to do was spot the first letter, check the color of the tag on the plate designating the year and he or she knew right away whether the plate had expired. That is not the case with the current plates.

Police officers like the notion of being able to spot the expired plates more easily.

"There's no way you can check it if both cars are moving," said Sgt. Rick Schmidt of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Steadily dropping

According to Sgt. Jack Wimp of the city's traffic division, the number of tickets written for expired license plates has been dropping ever since the license plates changed. Each citation for having expired plates brings in $50.

Between 1993 and 1996, Wimp said, Cape Girardeau police wrote an annual average of 1,100 tickets for expired plates. In 1997, that number dropped by 25 percent to 762.

"It picked up a little bit in 1998, but it was still down by 15 percent," he said.

Citations increased in 1999, then dropped by half in 2000, Wimp said. Citations dropped by 21 percent in 2001 and by another 25 percent in 2002.

"It's really difficult to recognize an expired license unless you're right close to it," Wimp said. "To my knowledge, I don't think we can tell by a number or digit what month it expires in. We used to be able to."

Watson said he and Dolan are optimistic that the proposed bill will become law this session, provided the governor doesn't veto it.

"We have put a lot of work into it," Watson said. "It will not hurt the average person who pays his taxes, gets his car inspected and relicensed. It's going to affect the people who have been avoiding that."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160