Florida pulling plug on specialty license plate

While Florida has more than 150 specialty license plates and more have the potential to be created, a

2020 law also called for an annual culling of the lowest selling tag.

In 2021, that tag was for Edward Waters College, a historically Black college in Jacksonville that opted not to join other independent colleges and universities in a new plate program offered to higher education entities.

That program had already axed the plethora of designs from 20 existing school-specific specialty tags who opted to buy into a standard plate plan that simply features a school logo. The good news for Edward Waters is that while it lost its unique plate last year, supporters can now get the standard plate.

That is the likely fate for the plate being deauthorized in 2022 as yet another tag for a Florida college is being pulled.

The tag with the least number of registrations through March 1,

2022, is that for New College of Florida, the public honors college in the state university system located Sarasota.

It had 765 registrations according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

The department notified New College officials that its plate was being deauthorized as of March 28, and that it would notify the plate holders of the change.

Drivers with the plate don’t have to turn it in right away, as they are allowed to keep a tag for 10 years before state law requires a new tag. If they do keep the tag, they won’t be paying the extra $25 fee normally associated with specialty tags that raise funds for nonprofit ventures.

Ahead of the delisting, the state had as a courtesy notified over several months the specialty plate organizations that were in danger of being the one slated for deauthorization. According to the FLHSMV website, other plates with low registrations include Florida Memorial University with 801, Florida Panthers NHL plate with 1,194, Flagler College with 1,351 and Kids Deserve Justice with 1,390.

They could face deauthorization in the coming years.

While the new tag is on its way out, the state has since 2020 paved

the way for several new plates that went through a more rigorous presale requirement before going into production.

That includes plates for the Navy

Blue Angels, Walt Disney World, Florida State Parks and Coastal Conservation Association. Two more plates for Explore Off-Road Florida as well as a tag for the

Divine 9 historically Black fraternities and sororities will also enter production this year.

Those six plates reached their required 3,000 preorder threshold.

COURTESY Florida has nearly 150 specialty license plates including military tags, but a 2020 law requires the plate with the lowest number of registrations to be deauthorized each year.