Panel adopts substitute for specialty plate scholarship; members question reliability of plate sales revenue

The committee adopted a substitute for House Bill 98 that would limit scholarship receipts to proceeds from a specialty 'black-and-white' license plate and give the bill a favorable report to the floor. The sponsor told the committee the substitute confines receipts to that plate and does not change an existing $10,000,000 cap.

The sponsor estimated the new plate could produce roughly $28,000,000 for Alabama based on sales rates in Mississippi and noted a $50 premium for the vanity plate. Committee members pressed on the reliability of that estimate and cautioned that specialty plates already compete with many other causes and organizations. One member said this revenue source "is not a good revenue source to depend on because so many people now have specialty tags for other things."

The committee adopted the substitute and later passed the bill out with a recorded 16 ayes, 0 nays. Questions remain on projected uptake and whether the plate would generate the estimated funds in practice; the sponsor and other lawmakers said they based the estimate on Mississippi's experience and that proceeds would be phased in over several years.