Sheila Kennedy has a blog post entitled Those Hits Keep Coming which discusses the latest committee amendment to SB 327. (The committee amendment is not yet online.)
The amendment to that bill apparently has a veneer or neutrality but comes in the wake of the freak out over the Indiana Youth Group license plates and, not coincidentally, would have the effect of preventing those gay-friendly plates from coming into existence.
In an effort to cloak the new rule with a veneer of impartiality, the measure requires–as a condition of approval–a burdensome amount of financial information from the petitioning nonprofits, 500 signatures of Indiana residents, and evidence of a “statewide public benefit from the use of the money the group would receive from the sale of license plates.” And each plate would have to be sponsored by a lawmaker and individually approved.
. . .
In order to prevent the predictable calamity that would occur if license plates bearing the legend “Indiana Youth Group” were allowed to roam freely over Indiana highways, the committee eliminated plates for the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police, IU Health, Indiana Soccer, the Zoo, the Marine Foundation and Ducks Unlimited. (Just as well. You can’t ever tell what those ducks might be up to…)
I’m no fan of specialty plates. I wasn’t when I was drafting specialty plate legislation 15 years ago. Their proliferation was out of control then and hasn’t gotten any better since. The General Assembly should return to exactly one message neutral plate that serves its bureaucratic function and no more. But, if we’re going to have “In God We Trust,” “Choose Life,” and the rest of it, then the General Assembly shouldn’t get in the business of setting up a system that endorses only conservative-neutral-to-friendly messages for the plates.
Indiana: One Class Basketball, One Standard Time, One License Plate. Hmm, I wonder if a legislator would be willing to endorse that slogan for a specialty plate.
If a group presents the sigs, can prove the financial issues, and satisfies all other potential issues…what are the chances of having a “Choose Abortion” plate?
Who chooses what is “violation of generally accepted ethical standards or societal behavioral standards” (from an Indy Star article)?
I’m not advocating a “Choose Abortion” plate. But there could be one heck of a fight if a group could satisfy every requirement, but if gets turned down for “behavioral standards”.
I agree with the single plate.
While we’re at it why is there a different plate for trucks? Why not print a single plate and put an endorsement sticker to indicate that this plate is for something other than a passenger car? Same goes for government plates, large trucks, etc.
I find it interesting that Masson states the “Choose Life” and “In God We Trust” specialty plates are “conservative messages.” I’m all for “liberal message” specialty plates. I think they would help expose the ignorance and destructiveness of their belief system. How about these specialty plates: “Socialism First”……”In Government We Trust”…..”Choose Abortion”…..”If It Feels Good, Do It”…..”Share The Wealth”…..”No Profits!”……”We Are All Evolved Monkeys”……”Unions and Atheists For Fairness”…..”Sexual Behavior = Ethnicity”.
I’m sure I could come up with a whole bunch more, but those were just off the top of my head.
Now that’s an idea! Let an ideological opponent choose the phrasing of your message. Instead of “In God We Trust,” it might be, “My God. Your License Plate.” And, instead of “Choose Life,” it might be, “Government Small Enough to Fit in Your Uterus.”
You nailed it, DOug. Jedna speaks as is if he or she chisled out the commandments by his or herself and handed them down from the tax-exempt belltower of Bob Jones University.
Jedna (sounds lak one of them forun’ names to me. Got yer papers handy?)
How about :
God-In Your Bedroom, not my Pious One
If we outlaw the teaching of the Established Science of Evolution,
Only Outlaws will Evolve
Poor? You picked the wrong Uterus
White and Frigid. And damm proud of it
I think I am morally superior, therfore I am
Neo-Pharisees for the removal of Matthew 7: v1-14 from the Bible
If a politician is savvy enough to endorse one license plate and single class basketball, I will cast my vote to make him (or her) Emperor of the State for Life. I hear that the Indiana Youth Group people have also endorsed multi-class basketball. Can we just ship them to Illinois?
Speaking of messages, content neutral of otherwise, it would seem that in doing away with ten or so specialty plates that were just recently approved for the program, the legislature is saying that breaking signed 5-year contracts with these organizations is perfectly OK. While lawyers might argue the point, the contracts signed don’t contain a “legislative action escape clause”, and there also seems to be a little thing in the federal constitution known as The Contract Clause, which tells states they can’t intefere with the obligation of contracts. The affected organizations have relied in the income from these arrangements to fund important programs. Hopefully they will see their common interests, raise publlic awarness, and reverse this ill conceived breach of contracts.
Here is a good thing about specialty plates.
I had the “In God We Trust” plates, and I was at the O’Hare airport parking lot. Evidently, the cashiers have to enter the plate into the computer when you check out. She went on a little rant about Indiana plates, because you can’t read the first two numbers easily (the are kind of small). It was small compensation for me for being gouged for parking.
The Illinois Tollway was also not able to process Indiana plates for 3 years because the Indiana specialty plates often have the same number as other specialty plates. They had to develop a system to recognize the different kinds of plates. Many people from up here got away with driving on the tollway for free.
And that is a good thing?
Of course, if a welfare recipient were to exploit a loophole, that would be awful…
In all deference to Buzzcut, I have friends and relatives in the region and I have driven those tollways as recently as three weeks ago. The toll booths are a PIFA, so I can understand his sentiment.
There you go being all small government conservative, Doug…