33 New specialty plates and new rules passed by florida legislature

​Previous objections of 40 House Democrats were withdrawn as HB 1135 returned from the Senate to the House, replacing SB 412. The effort to add the 'Divine Nine' African-American fraternity/sorority plates was successful and replaced the '"Ethical Ecotourism" proposed plate, and the bill passed the House by a 113 - 0 unanimous vote. The bill is now on the way to the Governor for approval.
HB 1135 caps the potential number of specialty license plates at 150, proposes 33 new plates (41 if the divine Nine are counted individually) and has revised the process to discontinue low sellers and restructure the independent college license plates. Audits of all specialty plates are now required every 3 years and the bill also allows for the purchase of specialty license plates by fleet companies.
Many of the new specialty plates contained in the bill have been trying to get through for many years. According to the Lobbyist Registration portal, there were 46 lobbyists/principals registered for HB 1135, including Kevin Jacobs and Jennifer Langston on behalf of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and 14 lobbyists/principals registered for SB 412. Rep Jamie Grant (R-Tampa), an entrepreneur, finally got his alumni, Auburn University, as a Florida plate. However, his attempts at advancing technological changes to the DMV failed. Co-sponsors of HB 1135 were Rep Melony Bell (R-Fort Meade), owner of Bell Apiaries and Rep Delores “D” Hogan Johnson (D-Fort Pierce), a retired educator. SB 412 was sponsored by Senator Aaron Bean (R-Jacksonville) a Relationship Development Officer at UF Health Jacksonville and a Licensed Auctioneer, and the bill was co-sponsored by Senator Gayle Harrell (R-Stuart) a Health Information Technology Consultant and CEO of Health IT Strategies, and Senator Doug Broxson (R-Pensacola), an insurance and real estate agent.
The bill, which has an effective date of October 1, 2020, allows new specialty plates approved by the Legislature to get on the road if supporters can successfully record a minimum of 3,000 voucher sales (4,000 for out-of-state college plates). It creates plates for the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia and Auburn University, provided they meet the 4,000 pre-sell requirement, and provided the Department can confirm that the state in which the out-of-state college or university is located has authorized any license plates for Florida colleges or universities in their state.

​The Department has to establish a method to issue the specialty plate vouchers within 120 days after the specialty license plate becomes law. Each proposed specialty license plate has 24 months to complete the voucher pre-sale. The proposed specialty plates will be taken in the order they appear in the statute, provided they have met the pre-sale requirement.
The priority order for approval of new specialty plates is as follows:
1.      BLUE ANGELS: “Home of the Blue Angels” 
2.      DUCKS UNLIMITED: “Conserving Florida Wetlands” 
3.      AUBURN UNIVERSITY: “War Eagle” for the Tampa Bay Auburn Club
4.      “BEAT CHILDHOOD CANCER” 
5.  “WALT DISNEY WORLD” for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and Northern Florida, Inc.
6.      FLORIDA 4-H: “4-H”
7.      DONATE LIFE FLORIDA: “Donors Save Lives” 
8.      FLORIDA STATE BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION: “Save the Bees”
9.      “ROTARY” for the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, Inc. 
10.  “HIGHWAYMEN” for the City of Fort Pierce and St Lucie Education Foundation, Inc.
11.  DAN MARINO CAMPUS: “Marino Campus” for the Dan Marino Foundation
12.  “ORLANDO CITY SOCCER CLUB” 
13.  “DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION” 
14.  GADSDEN FLAG: “Don’t Tread on Me” 
15.  “AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL” 
16.  “EXPLORE OFF ROAD” FLORIDA 
17.  AMERICAN EAGLE: “In God We Trust”
18.  GUARDIAN AD LITEM: “Heartfelt Child Advocacy”
19.  “JUMBO SHRIMP” for St. John’s Riverkeeper, Inc.
20.  “THANK A LINEMAN” for the Lake-Sumpter State College Foundation, Inc.
21.  BEST BUDDIES “Bestbuddies.org” for Best Buddies International, Inc.
22.  “The UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA” for the Georgia Bulldog Club of Jacksonville
23.  “DIVINE NINE” for the United Negro College Fund and nine African-American sororities and fraternities 
24.  “FLORIDA BAY FOREVER” for the Florida National Park Association, Inc.
25.  “BONEFISH AND TARPON TRUST”
26.  COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: “Conserve Florida’s Fisheries”
27.  “JOHNSON AND WALES UNIVERSITY” 
28.  “FLORIDA STANDS WITH ISRAEL” for the Hatzalah of Miami-Dade, Inc.
29.  “GIVE KIDS THE WORLD” for Give Kids The World, Inc.
30.  “MARINE CORPS LEAGUE” for the Marine Corps League, Department of Florida
31.  “K9S UNITED” for K9’s United, Inc. 
32.  FLORIDA NATIVE: “Native” with a camouflage background including leaves, flowers, or fronds of a minimum of 5 different Florida native plants, for the Florida Native Plant Society. 
33.  UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA: “Roll Tide” for the Pensacola Bama Club

​Divine Nine and Independent College Plates
The Divine Nine license plates will have a standard template and a unique logo, graphic or color for each of the listed organizations and the words :Divine Nine" must appear at the bottom of the plate.
5% of all the plates revenue goes to the United Negro College Fund, Inc. for college scholarships for florida residents attending Florida's historically black colleges and universities. 95% go to the organizations as selected by the purchase: The organizations can all spend 10% for marketing of their plate.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Inc.
Kappa alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.
Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.
The plates will have their sales combined for the purpose of meeting the new minimum sales requirement. 
Also, the Department shall create a standard template license plate with a unique logo or graphic identifying each independent college or university. Each independent college or university may opt in to this new design and shall have their plate sales combined for purposes of meeting the minimum license plate sales threshold and for determining the license plate limit. 
These new 'Divine Nine' and Independent college logo plates must be ordered directly from the DMV.

Discontinuation of Existing Specialty License Plates
On January 1 of each year, the Department shall discontinue the specialty license plate with the fewest number of plates in circulation, including license plates exempt from a statutory sales requirement. The Department shall mail a warning letter to the sponsoring organizations of the 10% of specialty plates with the lowest number of valid, active registrations as of December 1 of each year.
The Department must discontinue the issuance of an approved specialty license plate if the number of valid registrations falls below 3,000 (or 4,000 for out-of-state colleges) for at least 12 consecutive months. The Department shall mail a warning letter, but this does not apply to in-state collegiate license plates, license plates of institutions in and entities of the state University System, specialty license plates that have statutory eligibility limitations for purchase, specialty license plates for which annual use fees are distributed by a foundation for student and teacher leadership programs and teacher recruitment and retention, or Florida Professional Sports Team license plates.

​As of March 1, 2020, according to statistics on the DHSMV website, the following plates are beneath or close to the 3,000 minimum sales requirement (excluding the Independent College plates and Professional Sports plates):
A State of Vision 2,458
Agriculture Education 1,593
American Legion 2,699
Family Values    2,164
Kid's Deserve Justice 1,393
Moffitt Cancer Center 1,517
Parent's Make a Difference 1,464
Scouting Teaches Values 2,130
Florida Sheriff's Youth Ranches 3,313
Keep Kids Drug Free 3,313

The Top Five Specialty License Plates by number of registered vehicles as of March 1, 2020 is as follows:
1. University of Florida 94,769
2. Helping Sea Turtles Survive 88,368
3. Endless Summer 86,870
4. Florida State University 72,489
5. Protect Wild Dolphins 52,300

Other Specialty Plates
Specialty plates for Congressman have been de-listed and plates for former and current state Representatives and Senators are allowed for any who served a minimum of 2 years prior to July 1, 2021, for a payment of a one-time fee of $500. 
The bill creates a specialty motorcycle license plate for Purple Heart recipients, with the slogan "Combat Wounded Veteran" and may have the term "Purple Hart" stamped on the plate with the likeness of the Purple Heart medal.
Bronze Star recipients are added to the existing veterans motor vehicle license plates and all are also now available as motorcycle specialty license plates with "Veteran" or "Woman Veteran" on the bottom of the plate. Gold Star license plates are now only available to family members (up to 3) of a service member killed while serving in the Armed Forces of the United States.
The Special Olympics slogan is to be changed from "Everyone Wins" to "Be a Fan". 
The "Live the Dream" plate is to be distributed by the Dream Foundation, Inc. equally among the sickle cell organizations that are Florida members of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. (60%) and to the Miami-based Chapman Partnership, Inc. (30%), with up to 5% to be paid by the Department on behalf of the Dream Foundation, Inc. to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. in Atlanta, as a royalty for the use of the image of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. and the Dream Foundation, Inc. may use up to 5% to administer, promote and market the license plate. 
Amendments that either failed or were withdrawn included proposals for specialty license plates for Palm Beach Zoo and Conservation Society (Senator Powell), Morehouse College, a private historically black college in Atlanta, (Senator Thurston), Solar Power (Senator Berman) Knights of Columbus (Senator Gruthers), Jimmy Buffet's  Margaritaville (Senator Thurston) and Ethical Ecotourism (Senator Perry). Other plates that appeared on SB 412 before the amendments that also failed included: Florida Benevolent Group and Paddle Florida.

An amendment filed by Rep Grant to require independent tag agencies to disclose their fees and require approval from the DMV of agreements made between Tax Collector's and independent vendors also failed.
The 50 cents fee that is paid in addition to the fees required under s. 320.08, continues to be charged on every license registration sold to cover the costs of the Florida Real Time Vehicle Information System. The fees collected are deposited into the Highway Safety Operating Trust Fund to be used exclusively to fund the system. In an audit conducted by the auditor General in 2014, it was determined that the Department did not timely deactivate access privileges of some former employees and did not perform periodic reviews of user access privileges to FRVIS and the FRVIS database. 
In 2015, a glitch in updating the system caused the program to go down statewide. Leslie Palmer, then acting communication director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said, "The system is old. It requires lots of coding. When we make these Legislature changes like this sometime really minor just because of the age of the system it causes a little glitch like this." The state says that FRVIS is on a constant upgrade schedule since the late 1980s.
The proposal for the DMV to conduct a pilot program for digital license plates, which have been approved in California, Michigan and Arizona, was removed from the language of the bill prior to passing. The company behind the digital plates, Reviver Auto, say the plates have two versions, the RPlate for $499, or $799 for the RPlate Pro, which has more advanced telematics features. The language of the bill had been reduced to a pilot program for state vehicles only, before it disappeared from the final version completely.
So, Florida license plates will continue to be made at the state prisons as metal embossed plates through an agreement with PRIDE.