[E]liminating front license plates on most vehicles in Vermont would save a lot less money than some initially thought, according to a new report.
The state Department of Motor Vehicles estimates that producing only one plate for cars and light trucks would reduce its annual expenses by $111,000 due to reduced costs for materials, manufacturing and postage.
State lawmakers had projected the change could save $200,000 or more, and they apparently were so confident in that figure that it already has been factored into the department’s budget.
Despite the single-plate proposal’s diminished financial potential – and in spite of continued opposition from law enforcement groups – the issue may come up again in 2018.
“It’s an issue that we will continue to monitor,” said Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle and chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “It’s not a dead issue.”
Vermont is one of 31 states that require both front and rear license plates. And there probably wouldn’t be much talk of changing Vermont’s law if not for the state’s perennial budget struggles.
License plates aren’t a big-ticket item, but Mazza said Gov. Phil Scott’s administration “asked everybody to look at where they could find some savings.” So the single-plate proposal received serious attention during the 2017 legislative session.
Rep. Mollie Burke, P/D-Brattleboro and a member of the House Transportation Committee, said lawmakers heard testimony in favor of and opposed to the idea. The strongest opinions may have come from law enforcement.
In March, Bradley Curtis – acting division chief for the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector – told Burke’s committee that eliminating front plates could diminish an officer’s ability to quickly identify a vehicle and might also cause delays at the border.
In [testimony prepared for the committee], Curtis also said the change could hinder the effectiveness of license-plate readers and other “remote surveillance technology.”
Colchester Police Chief Jennifer Morrison, president of the Vermont Police Chiefs Association, said her group also is opposed to eliminating front plates on most vehicles. She cited concerns similar to those raised by the border patrol.
“We believe that the public safety implications are not worth the cost savings,” Morrison said.
Robert Ide, the state Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner, said he doesn’t favor changing Vermont’s plate setup. He noted that most states require that vehicles display front and back license plates.
“Nationwide, the standard of our professional trade association calls for two plates to assist law enforcement and turnpike toll readers and (officers) at the border,” Ide said.
Mazza acknowledged those objections, but he also questioned the front license plate’s continued relevance. Given that Vermont’s front plates no longer carry registration stickers, “what’s it really mean now?” Mazza asked.
Lawmakers did not make a decision on the matter in the 2017 session, instead directing the Department of Motor Vehicles to assess how much money might be saved by cutting out the front plate.
Ide delivered that one-page document on Dec. 1. It says elimination of front plate on cars and light pickups would save about $111,000 based on the department’s average order of 100,000 sets of new plates each year.
The department expects to save 83 cents per vehicle in aluminum costs and another 8 cents per vehicle in manufacturing costs. Also, the cost to mail a single plate would be 80 cents less than the cost to mail two.
Burke said she was “not particularly surprised” that the department’s expected savings were lower than the Legislature’s projections. Such projections often can be overestimated, she said.
Mazza, however, said the department’s figure “was a total surprise to me, and I’d like to see how they got those figures.”
Ide said the biggest factor in the reduced savings estimate may have been the way license plates are distributed: Only about 25 percent of all plates are mailed, which cuts down on postage savings.
Burke said the department’s lower figure may make it more difficult to justify eliminating front license plates, and she said she would vote against doing so.
But Mazza said the change still may be worthwhile. “If we can save $100,000 (or) $200,000, it’s a savings,” he said.
For the Department of Motor Vehicles, there’s an important financial footnote in the license-plate debate: Act 38, the bill that ordered the department to produce an estimate of single-plate savings, also reallocated $200,000 from the department’s budget to the Town Highway Class 2 Roadway Program.
That reallocation was tied directly to “cost savings projected to result from the requirement that (the department) issue one license plate instead of two license plates for most motor vehicles registered in Vermont.”
That language was enacted even though there had been no decision to eliminate front plates. And even if that decision had been made, the department’s estimate now indicates that the savings would be much less than the amount that’s been cut from its budget.
Ide noted that his department has a budget of about $30 million, “and it’s not unreasonable to think at the end of the (fiscal) year that we might have an extra $200,000.”
But there’s no guarantee of that, and Ide said the department has “a limited number of moving pieces” with which to manipulate expenses.
“It’s definitely going to have an impact,” Ide said of the Legislature’s reduced allocation. “The question is, how big.”
Burke acknowledged confusion over the legislative language and said lawmakers may examine the issue when making mid-year adjustments.
She also pointed out that there’s one more wrinkle in the license plate discussion: A different statute approved last spring, Act 71, directs the department to examine potential cost savings associated with redesigning the state’s standard plates.
The department also is supposed to “identify any other opportunities to reduce costs associated with the production and acquisition of license plates.”