SB 93-SPECIALTY LICENSE PLATES  9:09:46 AM CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced the first order of business to be SB 93. KARLA HART, staff to Senator Bill Wielechowski, presented SB 93 for the sponsor. She said that specialty license plates are sweeping the country. The 26th Alaska State Legislature had a total of 15 committee meetings entailing nine versions of bills and requiring one concurrent resolution on license plates. Each license plate request takes legislative attention away from more pressing state matters and creates state costs of drafting, duplicating, distributing, posting, scheduling and amending. Legislatively created fund raising plates require the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to track and request small amounts of money for reappropriation. Other plates require the DMV to check a registrant's status. Two legislatively created license plates from 1998 have never been issued. The ease of production of license plates has created interest in specialty plates. SB 93 proposes an administrative approach which frees up the legislature for more pressing business, allows for uniform objective standards to be set by regulation, saves money and time, and creates a uniform specialty plate design which makes it easier for law enforcement to recognize plates. Legislators could refer constituents to the administrative program, rather than addressing each request through a bill. SB 93 gives the DMV guidelines for developing the regulations for a specialty plate program and leaves it up to them to set the specific regulations. MS. HART explained that section 1 of SB 93 allows the DMV to develop and implement regulations to issue special request plates to any Alaska organization with a 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. It also allows departments and municipalities to issue specialty plates. It directs the DMV to design a standard plate design for all specialty plates, which makes it easier for law enforcement to identify plates. Each entity must submit its application on a form provided by the DMV, pay a fee that is set by regulation, and then submit registration fees for at least 50 motor vehicles before plates will be issued. Also, the organization requesting the plates may not be offensive in purpose, nature, activity or name. DMV will develop regulations around this statutory requirement. The organization requesting the plate may charge a fee in addition to regular registration fees, and then submit the excess fees to the DMV. For instance, the request for NRA special request plates has funds in excess which would be returned to a charity. This bill allows the sponsoring organization to collect all fees and then pay the $30 fee to DMV and the organization may keep the rest. 9:14:19 AM MS. HART further noted that each organization is free to develop its own policies and procedures for collecting fees. The regulations also specify that a minimum number of registrations or renewals of specialty plates must be conducted. Section 2 sets the fee for specialty plates at $30 above regular licensing fees. The effective date would be January 1, 2012. DMV says it would not be a problem to implement the regulations by that date. 9:15:53 AM SENATOR BILL WIELECHOWSKI, sponsor of SB 93, emphasized that he did not intend to be critical of other license plates bills. This is more of a streamlining bill and can also satisfy the needs of constituents. He asked if his staff knew how the system is working in other states. MS. HART answered yes. Pennsylvania is very happy with its program. They started with a minimum requirement of 300 plates; now the minimum requirement is one. The program has proven to be cost effective and easy to administer. They are open to sharing their procedure with Alaska. WHITNEY BREWSTER, Director, Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Administration, said she was available for questions. CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked for her thoughts on SB 93. MS. BREWSTER answered that SB 93 would streamline the process. CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI noted there was a zero fiscal note. MS. BREWSTER said she did not believe it would cost anything. 9:19:28 AM SENATOR PASKVAN asked what she would consider to be a basis for denial. MS. BREWSTER stated the DMV has existing regulations regarding personalized plates and their denial. She said that symbols or letters in a combination that demeans an ethnic, religious, or racial group, or is otherwise vulgar, indecent or offensive will be denied. In those instances when personalized plates fit that description, they do recall the plate and give the individual the ability to go through the administrative hearing process. Organizations could also go through that process. SENATOR PASKVAN asked if there would be the potential to stop a message if it was distasteful to the majority of people. MS. BREWSTER replied if the message was patently offensive to the ordinary person the division could go through the process. Standards would be set in regulation. SENATOR PASKVAN noted that what would be offensive to one may be a core message to another. MS. BREWSTER answered she did not disagree. This is a difficult topic. DMV uses the standard, is it demeaning to a religious or ethnic group or does it have sexual connotations. SENATOR PASKVAN asked how the state can expect to prevent people from putting an offensive message on a license plate if it doesn't have the ability to take a similarly offensive bumper sticker off a vehicle. MS. BREWSTER said there is a process in place, and court cases regarding license plates say it is a freedom of speech issue. SENATOR MEYER asked if Ms. Brewster could assure him that she would be at the DMV for the next 100 or 200 years it would be fine. The concern is what happens after she is gone. How do we define offensive in purpose, nature, activity or name. For this to work there need to be tight regulations in place. He then asked if she could explain the administrative hearing process. MS. BREWSTER said the DMV has three administrative hearing officers who hear a number of issues, from DUI revocation to personalized plate revocation. The DMV has software that will weed out many offensive plates. Sometimes combinations slip through the cracks. When notified of this by law enforcement or the public, the DMV looks at the plate against current regulations and if the plate violates regulations they will inform the person via certified mail that they will revoke the license plate. They also give them information on requesting an administrative hearing, and inform them that they can change their plate free of charge. If they do request a hearing, the hearing officer looks at the case and makes a determination based on regulations and existing Alaska court cases. SENATOR MEYER asked who pays for the administrative hearing. 9:29:36 AM MS. BREWSTER answered it falls under the operations of DMV. SENATOR MEYER asked if this would be an added cost to DMV. MS. BREWSTER responded she did not foresee a large increase in hearings SENATOR MEYER noted SB 93 says that before the plate will be issued, there must be at least 50 vehicles, and asked how that would work. MS. BREWSTER said the fees would be collected by the organization and submitted with the application. SENATOR MEYER commented that the way other states do this is mixed, and he can see a lot of benefits to having the process streamlined. CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked about court cases. Roughly half the states have this process, so there may be a well-established body of case law. MS. BREWSTER answered that courts have consistently ruled if a state allows specialty license plates, then it is a billboard for that person or organization. There is a substantial body of decisions to direct hearing officers. 9:33:39 AM CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI closed public testimony and announced that SB 93 would be held in committee.