House reviews change to specialty license plate law
NASHVILLE (AP) — Significant changes in Tennessee’s specialty license plate law are in the offing on Capitol Hill after last year’s divisive issuance of a “Choose Life” plate.
The House Transportation Committee on Wednesday reviewed a bill that would shift responsibility for vetting specialty license plate applications to the Department of Safety, as opposed to the Legislature, and change where the extra money goes.
The actions follow last year’s approval of the Choose Life license plate, which many felt improperly crossed the line into advocacy of a political position. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued over it. The case is pending in federal court.
Gov. Phil Bredesen allowed the Choose Life bill to become law without his signature, and called on the Legislature to review its procedures for issuing the plates.
The plates began two decades ago as a way to help fund the Tennessee Arts Commission, which receives 40 percent of the additional $35 the plates cost.
In the ensuing years the plates have blossomed in popularity. Today there are more than 100, benefiting colleges and universities, Ducks Unlimited, the Great Smoky Mountains and a slew of other things.
But the Choose Life plate, coupled with legislative uneasiness about its beneficiary, Tennessee New Life Resources, an organization closely tied to the anti-abortion group Tennessee Right to Life, prompted review of the entire process.
Rep. Jamie Hagood, R-Knoxville, presented her plan to the Transportation committee on Wednesday. It would give the Department of Safety the responsibility of deciding which plates to accept.
“This is an effort to depoliticize this very important issue so we can continue in a constitutionally acceptable manner,” Hagood told the committee.
She said groups that currently get the plates would be exempted from the changes, which would be effective only for plates issued after July 1.
She said the Safety Department would be guided by court decisions and other aspects of state law in deciding what is obscene, “hate speech,” or “contrary to the public interest” in granting or denying license plate applications.
Anyone denied a plate would have access to court appeals under Hagood’s bill.
“It concerns me to make public policy based on judicial blackmail by one group over the Choose Life plate,” said Rep. Jerome Cochran, R-Johnson City, arguing that the state should wait on the courts to rule on the ACLU’s lawsuit before changing its procedures.
Another major change proposed by Hagood would be in how the extra money is distributed.
It could no longer go directly to a charitable organization, such as is the case with the Choose Life plates, the Friends of the Smokies and others. The additional money would have to go directly to a governmental entity or to an institution of higher education.
Hagood said money raised for the benefit of a group might be funneled to them as a grant by the government, but it could not be paid to the private entity directly.
Her bill would retain the threshold of requiring 1,000 plates to be pre-purchased before the state would begin manufacturing them.
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On the Net:
See HB2805 at Tennessee General Assembly:
http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/
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