12 more specialty license plates will be available from the state

Florida will soon have 11 more specialty license plates and one new military tag for those serving during the Cold War traveling about its highways, although nine of them came as a package deal.

The Divine 9 specialty tag approved by the 2020 Florida Legislature is for nine historically Black fraternities and sororities. Those nine along with the America the Beautiful and Explore Off-Road Florida tags were shipped out this month to the state’s 67 county tax collector offices.

The state also shipped out a 12th plate, a new military tag, the Army Of Occupation plate, which requires recipients to have been permanently assigned to occupation forces in specific overseas locations during the Cold War between May 9, 1945, and Oct. 2, 1990.

To get a Divine 9 plate, customers have to be a member of either the Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Phi Beta Sigma or Iota Phi Theta fraternities, or the Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta or Sigma Gamma Rho sororities. Each group has its own plate design.

Some revenue collected from the plates will head to the United Negro College Fund for college scholarships for Florida residents attending the state’s historically Black colleges and universities. Funds will also go to the Association to Preserve African American Society, History and Tradition as well as to the nine organizations themselves.

The America the Beautiful plate raises money for the Florida Family Policy Council while Explore Off-Road raises funds for the Florida Off-Road Foundation.

All three tags had all achieved the 3,000 preorder threshold required by Florida law before being put into production, and were among more than 30 potential specialty tags approved in 2020. To pass muster before being put into production, the law has given the tags two years to garner 3,000 presales, except for three out-of-state university plates that face a 4,000-presale threshold.

Others from that year already in production are plates for Walt Disney World, the Navy Blue Angels and the Coastal Conservation Association.

Another seven plates were approved in 2021, one of which for Florida State Parks achieved its preorder requirement in 34 days.

Of the 31 potential plates approved in 2020, the next closest is the Best Buddies plate that features Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and raises funds for the group dedicated to ending the economic isolation of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities like autism and Down syndrome. That one stands at 2,781 sold as of May 23, according to date tracked by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles on its website.

Other plates with more than 1,000 presales include those for Ducks Unlimited, Thank a Lineman and the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust.

Of the three collegiate plates in the running, Auburn University has passed the halfway mark to its higher 4,000-presale requirement with 2,310 plates sold while the University of Alabama has 1,454 and University of Georgia has 492.

These plates have only until Sept. 30 to achieve the preorder threshold or they will become delisted, although 2022 legislature that has yet to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis would extend the window another two years and lower the collegiate plate threshold to 3,000.

That bill, SB 364, also lowers the total number of plates allowed from the 150 set in the 2020 law to 135. As of June 1, the FLHSMV lists more than 150 different specialty tag registrations on its database, but that includes dozens of military tags such as World War II Veteran and Navy Submariner that are not available to the general public and are exempt from minimum registration thresholds. It also doesn’t include sales for several school tags currently available, but have yet to make their first registration.

The state’s current brochure now lists 138 car tags and one motorcycle specialty tag available for purchase at county tax collectors offices.

The 2022 bill also calls for a version of the new Blue Angels plate to be made available for motorcycles, and adds to the potential preorder list tags for Inter Miami CF soccer team, Safe Haven for Newborns, Pap Corps Champions for Cancer Research, Learn to Fly, Florida Swims, Down Syndrome Awareness, Gopher Tortoise and Take Stock in Children.

There are still 31 plates including all three out-ofstate university plates leftover from 2020 and 2021 on the presale list.

Statewide as of May 3, there were 1,917,546 specialty tags registered from among all the options. The federal highway administration listed 18,464,506 vehicles registered in the state as of 2020, so about one out of every 10 cars in the state has a specialty tag.

COURTESY The America the Beautiful specialty license plate approved in 2020 by the Florida Legislature achieved its 3,000 presale requirement and was shipped to tax collector’s offices in June 2022.