Indiana Specialty License Plate Bill Close to Final Passage

Groups with specialty auto license plates would face new sales and financial reporting requirements under a proposal endorsed today by an Indiana Senate committee.

The bill would create an eight-member bipartisan panel to review requests from nonprofit groups and universities for specialty plates.

Bill author Rep. Ed Soliday says all groups with plates would have to sell at least 500 a year and undergo a financial review once a decade.

"Currently, we have entities that have had plates forever, that they’ve never been reviewed, that their policies have been changed, they may or may not have statewide impact, so every ten years a not-for-profit’s plate would be reviewed and they would have to submit their stuff again," Soliday told the Senate panel. 

The bill sets a limit of 150 specialty plates, while the state now has about 100 specialty plates.  It now goes to the full Senate.

The House approved the proposal last month after a similar push was derailed a year ago by social conservatives who led a drive to revoke a plate issued to a gay youth advocacy group.