Ind. Senate panel approves specialty plate limits

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A proposal to overhaul Indiana's specialty auto license plate system cleared a legislative committee Tuesday with the support of two senators who were part of a push last year to revoke a gay youth advocacy group's plate that derailed a similar plan.

The Senate's transportation panel voted unanimously to advance the bill to the full Senate following a brief hearing during which no one spoke against it.

The bill would create an eight-member bipartisan panel to review requests from nonprofit groups and universities for specialty fundraising plates. It would set new requirements for the groups to sell at least 500 plates a year and submit reports on how they spend the proceeds.

A proposal last year to limit specialty plates died after controversy erupted over the push by some legislators to revoke plates issued by the Indiana Youth Group. The group, which counsels gay youths, became a lightning rod for social conservatives who accused it of promoting underage sex. The group has vehemently denied those accusations.

The Bureau of Motor Vehicles later pulled the youth group's plate after determining in a review prompted by a letter from 20 Republican senators that the organization and two others broke their contracts with the state by auctioning low-numbered plates.

Sen. James Merritt, who wrote the senators' letter to the BMV, said he believed the new proposal would create a more transparent system than the current application process to the BMV for specialty plates.

Bill sponsor Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, took the time to listen to all sides and try to eliminate as many complaints as possible, said Merritt, R-Indianapolis.

"I think he struck a balance right in the middle," Merritt said. "I'm hopeful that we've solved some of the previous situations."

Merritt and Sen. Jim Banks, R-Columbia City, were among 20 GOP senators who signed last year's letter. Both voted in favor of the new bill during Tuesday's committee meeting.

The new panel could recommend up to new five plates a year, with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles allowed to have a maximum of 150 specialty plates. A legislative report shows that 17 of the 92 specialty plates sold during the past two years fell short of selling the proposed minimum 500 plates a year.

Groups with the specialty plates receive $25 of the additional $40 fee charged by the BMV for those auto tags. Those groups say the program is a valuable fundraiser and improves their public visibility.

The Senate committee did remove a provision added by the House last month that created a new specialty plate for Vietnam War veterans.

Soliday, who was an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam, said he wasn't in favor of creating that new plate because he didn't want to divert attention from the military service branch plates that have raised more than $6 million for Indiana's Military Family Relief Fund.

Committee Chairman Thomas Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, said he agreed that adding a Vietnam War plate into state law would go against the new procedure that the Legislature is trying to put in place.

"I'm not anti-Vietnam vets, obviously, but what about Desert Storm, what about Iraq, Afghanistan?" said Wyss, a retired lieutenant colonel from the Indiana Air National Guard.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ind-senate-panel-approves-specialty-222746654.html

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