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Utah House approves several specialty license plate bills, including veterans and higher‑education plates
Summary
The Utah House passed multiple specialty license plate bills, including a higher‑education scholarship plate (HB 213) and a veterans/Purple Heart/Pearl Harbor survivor plate (HB 208), and referred them to the Senate; lawmakers debated implementation details including fee handling and design approval.
The Utah House of Representatives on the floor approved several specialty license plate measures, sending them to the Senate for consideration.
Representative David S. Osler introduced House Bill 213 to allow participating higher‑education institutions to offer a common plate design with an institutional logo and a donor slip to be submitted with vehicle registration. "This is one of my bills that I'm really excited about this year," Osler said, describing a process in which donors give directly to their institution and receive a verification slip for registration. He said that for the first year "more than $24 of the $25" would go to the school's scholarship fund.
Representative Donald LeBaron and co‑sponsor Representative Janet Rose described House Bill 208, which deletes the additional fee for special plates for Pearl Harbor survivors, former prisoners of war and Purple Heart recipients so they may obtain the plates without the extra charge. LeBaron told colleagues the state cost would be minimal. During floor questioning Representative Goodfellow asked what the current extra fee amounted to; earlier statements conflicted in the exchange, with the sponsor initially saying "$5" then acknowledging the fee as "$50." Goodfellow said he supported exempting the fee but noted constituent confusion over the amount.
The House recorded passage of HB 213 by a 65–4 vote and HB 208 by a 70–0 vote; both bills were referred to the Senate for further action. A separate House action recorded the passage of another bill listed on the roll call (House Bill 199) by 63–3 and its referral to the Senate.
The measures leave several implementation details to administrative review, including final plate design and Tax Commission approval for the higher‑education plate. Sponsors said participating institutions would prepare artwork and slogans subject to the Tax Commission's approval and handle donor receipts.
Next steps: the bills will be considered by the Senate. If enacted, the higher‑education plate will create a recurring scholarship funding stream for participating institutions; the veterans' plate change will remove the extra special‑plate fee for qualifying veterans and survivors.
