Senate Bill seeks to change vanity plates

PHOENIX—There are currently three bills for new vanity plates working their way through the Senate.

SB 1116 Creates a disabled veteran special plate if $32,000 is paid for its implementation to ADOT by December 31, 2013.
SB 1343 Creates a Girls’ Youth Organization special plate (GYO plate) if $32,000 is paid for its implementation to ADOT by December 31, 2013
SB 2025 Creates a Fallen Hero special plate if $32,000 is paid for its implementation to ADOT by December 31, 2013.

If Democrat Steve Farley has his way, they will take a new shape. In response to complaints that officers complaining about the difficulty seeing the letters, the Senator has introduced SB 1206. The bill would change 24-2405 to read:

A special plate issued pursuant to this article shall have a standard design with one area on the plate that is a three inch square that is set aside for a logo or message. The department shall determine the standard design of the special plate, and the logo or message is subject to the approval of the department. This section applies to all special plates that are authorized pursuant to this article after the effective date of this section.

The Senator has also introduced SB 1198 which is aimed at preventing obscuring the readablity of license plates with coatings or electronic means. The Bill would add Paragraph D to ARS 28-2354 reading:

Unless authorized by the department, a person shall not apply a covering or any substance to the license plate or use an electronic device or electrochromatic film that obscures from any angle the numbers, characters, year validating tabs or name of the jurisdiction issuing the plate.

While there is a penalty for covering up the name of the State on a license plate, the bill does not appear to provide a penalty for violating the proposed provision.

See Also: Arizona bill targets hard-to-read license plates