texas company looking for legislative approval to privatize the specialty license plate program - "private vendor specialty plates"

Rep John Snyder

​HB 1267  Specialty License Plates Marketed and Sold by Private Vendors is sponsored by Rep John Snyder (R-Palm Beach) who lives in Stuart and is a Staffing and Payroll Services business owner. Rep Snyder (33) graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University, with a BS in Marketing. His father is William D. Snyder, who served in the Florida House of Representatives (2006-2012) and is now the Martin County Sheriff. Rep Snyder was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2020. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 2007-2012 and was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Rep Snyder beat out former Rep Carl Domino and lawyer Rick Kozell in a very expensive Republican primary and he replaced state Rep. MaryLynn Magar (R-Tequsta), who was term-limited. Rep Snyder raised and spent $209,344.00, according to campaign finance reports, and captured nearly 65% of the votes in a landslide victory over Democrat Elisa Ackerly (56) who garnered 35%. 
​HB 1269 Fees/Specialty License Plates Marketed and Sold by Private Vendors  is sponsored by Rep Adam Botana (R-Lee County), from Bonita Springs who was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2020. Rep Botana works in the Carnival Industry, Food and Beverage and Marina Industry and has a GED.

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The Senate companion bill to authorize the fees contained in HB 1269 is SB 1862 Fees/Specialty License Plates Marketed and Sold by Private Vendors sponsored by Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez (R-Miami Dade/Monroe), who has also filed SB 1930, the companion bill to HB 1267.
Senator Rodriguez served as a City of Doral Councilwoman (2010-2018) and Vice Mayor (2017-2018) She served in the House of Representatives (2018-2020) and was elected to the Senate in 2020. She is the Senior Vice President of Miami Realtors and received an M.S., Leadership, at Nova Southeastern University, H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business in 2009 and before that attended Florida International University, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, receiving a B.S., Communications in 1999.
Senator Rodriguez replaced term-limited Republican incumbent Anitere Flores and defeated her Democratic challenger Javier Fernandez. A child of Cuban immigrants, Senator Rodríguez has lived in South Florida all her life. Before she got her start in politics, she worked as a lobbyist for the Miami Association of Realtors and Baptist Health South Florida.

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The proposed Specialty License Plates Marketed and Sold by Private Vendors bill will have an effective date of July 1, 2021. The bills provide for the following:
To create the new plates, the private vendor program will require the DHSMV to enter into a contract with an experienced private vendor whose proposal is most advantageous to the state, as determined from competitive sealed proposals that satisfy the requirements of this section, for the exclusive vendor rights to market and sell specialty license plates. 
The bills state that the department shall enter into a contract with an experienced private vendor based on the sealed competitive bid for an initial term of at least 5 years, renewable with the same private vendor for up to two successive terms of 5 years each, after which the contract must then be competitively bid. Competitive unsealed bids can then be submitted after 15 years.
DHSMV has to certify to the Chief Financial Officer an estimate, with a detailed explanation of the basis on which the estimate is calculated, of all reasonable costs to the department associated with the evaluation of competitive sealed proposals received by the department and with the implementation and enforcement of a contract entered into, including direct, indirect, and administrative costs for the issuance or renewal of private vendor specialty license plates 
The department may not unreasonably disapprove or limit any aspect of the private vendor's marketing and sales plan; unreasonably interfere with the selection, assignment, or management by the private vendor of the private vendor's employees, agents, or subcontractors; or require the private vendor to market and sell specialty license plates.
The private vendor may not market or sell specialty license plates that compete directly for sales with any other similar specialty license plate issued under this chapter without the approval of the department and the sponsoring organization of the other specialty license plate. The department may publish for public comment on its website for up to 10 days a proposed design or color combination for a specialty license plate marketed or sold by a private vendor. The department may not restrict the background color, color combinations, or color alphanumeric license plate numbers of such a specialty license plate, except as determined by the department as necessary for law enforcement purposes.
The department may approve new designs and color combinations for specialty license plates that are marketed and sold by a private vendor under a contract entered into with the private vendor. Each approved license plate design and color combination remains the property of the department. 
The department may approve new designs and color combinations for specialty license plates, including specialty license plates that may be personalized which are marketed and sold by the private vendor under a contract entered into with the private vendor. 
A specialty license plate marketed and sold by a private vendor must be approved by the department for issuance for a term of 1, 3, 5, or 10 years. Subject to the limitations provided in the bill, the department may cancel a specialty license plate or require the discontinuation of a specialty license plate design or color combination that is marketed and sold by the private vendor under contract at any time if the department determines that the cancellation or discontinuation is in the best interest of this state or the motoring public.
An organization to which specialty license plate annual use fees are distributed under s. 320.08058 on or before June 30, 2021, may elect to have its respective specialty license plate marketed and sold by a private vendor after July 1, 2021. Any previously paid deposit or fee shall be credited toward the private vendor for the term to which it applies.
The 150 maximum cap on the number of allowable SLP’s does not apply to specialty license plates marketed and sold by private vendors.
To create a private vendor specialty plate, 200 voucher sales have to be sold (not 3,000) including for out of state college plates (not 4,000) and they don’t have to comply with the requirement that the state in which the college or university is located has authorized license plates for colleges or universities located in Florida. 

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License plates marketed and sold by private vendors are exempt from the requirement that fees and any interest earned from the fees may be expended only for use in Florida.
Dealer and fleet specialty license plates must be ordered directly from the department unless marketed and sold by a private vendor, in which case they may be ordered directly from the vendor.
The department must discontinue the issuance of an approved specialty license plate marketed and sold by a private vendor, if it falls below 200 plates, for at least 12 consecutive months (not 3,000.)
License plates marketed and sold by private vendors are exempt from the requirement that 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 annual use fee from the sale of specialty license plates, the interest earned from those fees, or any fees received by any entity as a result of the sale of specialty license plates may not be used for the purpose of marketing to, or lobbying, entertaining, or rewarding, an employee of a governmental agency that is responsible for the sale and distribution of specialty license plates, or an elected member or employee of the Legislature. This does not apply to specialty license plates marketed and sold by private vendors.
License plates marketed and sold by private vendors are also exempted from minimum sales requirements for the Independent college template and out of state college plates. ​

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​In a search of the registered lobbyist database, Corcoran Partners have registered as lobbyists for License Plates of Texas, LLC, for HB 1269 / HB 1267: Robert M Blair, Jacqueline A Corcoran, (probably Jessie Corcoran, Michael’s wife) Eric Criss, Andrea Tovar and Michael C. Corcoran.
Ted Smith (Florida Automobile Dealers Association) is the only lobbyist that has filed a disclosure so far for the two Senate bills.
License Plates of Texas LLC operates myplates.com out of Austin, Texas and according to Dunn and Bradstreet, License Plates of Texas, LLC d/b/a My Plates has 15 total employees across all of its locations and generates $2.27 million in sales (USD).
According to press releases from My Plates, My Plates launched in November 2009 and has sold close to 500,000 specialty plates across the state, averaging about 42,000 a year, and raised over $100M for the General Revenue of Texas ($8.3 million a year). In addition to those revenues, they have also raised millions for various colleges, charities and scholarships. My Plates designs and markets new specialty license plates as the sole vendor for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV).
According to a press release in January, 2021, MyPlates now offers all of the 450 plates in Texas, including plates for Mighty Fine Burgers and Remax and their new web site launch achieved the TxDMV’s objective for the plate vendor to provide the public with the convenience of a one-stop-shop to acquire all specialty license plates, ending visits to multiple website stores.  

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