Committee backs restoring classic Helping Schools license tag and free exchanges

The Senate Judiciary Committee reported SP 300 favorably after a presentation by Senator Figures describing the history and fundraising value of the Helping Schools specialty license tag.

Senator Figures told the committee the Helping Schools tag began after a fourth-grade class at Langkoff Elementary School wrote Mobile County legislators; she credited her late husband, Senator Michael Figures, with answering the students and shepherding the original idea into law. "This tag is a personal thing to me because there was a fourth grade class that came up with this idea," she said.

Senator Figures said the current tag design "almost didn't look like a Helping Schools tag" and that the bill would restore the classic design and allow owners who received the newer design to exchange it for the classic design at no charge. She said she had worked with the revenue commissioner on the exchange proposal and that, under the bill, the exchange would be provided at no cost to owners.

During questions, Senator Stutz asked why owners could not simply wait until the tag's normal renewal to receive the classic design. Senator Figures said tags last several years and that waiting would mean many people would "miss the story" and the fundraising awareness the design aims to preserve. Stutz also noted that replacing tags outside the normal renewal cycle typically involves cost savings mechanisms and questioned the "no cost" assertion; Senator Figures reiterated her claim that exchanges would be no cost under the bill.

Senator Figures moved the favorable report; Senator Smitherman seconded. The clerk recorded the vote as 8–0 and the chair announced the bill had been given a favorable report.