Senate OKs Helping Schools license-plate bill, names it for the late Sen. Michael A. Figures

The Alabama Senate on Feb. 25 adopted SB 300, a bill to preserve the Helping Schools specialty license plate design and to allow motorists who purchased the current plate to exchange it for the preserved design at no charge after Jan. 1, 2027.

Senator Bell offered an amendment to designate the bill "the senator Michael a Figures Act." The amendment was adopted without objection using the previous roll. Senator Figures, who described the origin of the Helping Schools tag in a floor story tracing it to a fourth-grade class in Mobile and to her late husband, thanked the body after the passage. "Back in the eighties when my husband, the late senator Michael Afigures was the senator here, a group of, a fourth grade class actually from Linecoff Elementary School in Mobile wrote the entire Mobile delegation and they wrote them with an idea to raise money for the Education Trust Fund budget…" she said on the floor.

Senator Figures told the chamber the bill ensures the Helping Schools tag will retain a recognizable design in perpetuity and that if a person purchased one of the current Helping Schools tags, after the bill goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2027 they can take that tag back to the revenue commissioner in their county and exchange it for the preserved design at no charge.

Final passage of SB 300 as amended was recorded as 33 ayes and 0 nays. The bill passed under regular order; county revenue offices will need administrative guidance on accepting exchanges when the effective date is reached.

Next step: Having passed the Senate, the measure proceeds along the legislative process per statutory procedures; implementing steps for county revenue offices and the Department of Revenue were discussed but not detailed on the floor.