Senate votes 31-3 to limit future specialty license plates

The Senate has voted 31-3 in favor of SB 1179, Senate Transportation Chairman Jim Hammond’s bill to limit new specialty license plates to just public agencies or the foundations that benefit them. Hammond said Idaho’s getting to many special plates for extraneous causes. Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, spoke in favor of the bill. “Something needs to be done,” he said. “We run the problem, senators, of eventually having the choice of having a pro-life plate or a pro-choice plate, a religious plate - these types of things have happened in other states, and it’s probably bad policy.” He noted that the bill includes a grandfather clause allowing existing specialty plates to continue. The bill now moves to the House.