Mississippi has a bustling car scene, with everything from classics to exotics, to tuners, muscle cars, imports, and everything in between. As a fundamental nature of our hobby, we are required to display license plates on our vehicles. Most car enthusiasts spend countless hours and countless dollars to make their vehicles appearance unique, and sometimes license plates can make or break the appearance of a vehicle. That's why most folks that live in states with plate designs use tag covers, to hide the plate design as it is unappealing to look at. Some states, such as Texas and Iowa, have very basic "retro", or "blackout" plate designs, which are simply plates with two contrasting colors, and no designs. These types of plates sell extremely well in other states and would provide a much-needed funding boost to road and bridge maintenance in this state. For example, Iowa issued 92,000 blackout plates in the first six months of availability! In California, the blackout plate has been the highest selling specialty license plate since that state began sales in 2015.

Mississippi does not offer such an option to its citizens, only allowing the standard issue plate, or a variety of non-customizable specialty plates, bringing me to this petition...

Under § 27-19-44, Special license tags or plates, Mississippi Code of 1972, if we can get around 300 people to buy into the idea of running this plate, we can possibly get the Department of Revenue to make this thing.

A couple thoughts. First of all, this is NOT a replacement for the current 2019-2024 "In God We Trust" plates! This is an ALTERNATIVE design being submitted as a SPECIALTY PLATE that you must pay extra for! The cost of the specialty tag would be set at $30, distributed as follows:

• $20.00 of each additional fee collected on the distinctive license plates issued shall be disbursed to the state four-lane highway fund to fund the maintenance and repair of four-lane roadways in this state, which will promote tourism and economic development by enhancing the quality of life.
• $6.00 of each additional fee collected on the distinctive license plates issued shall be disbursed to the county tax collector where the plate is issued for maintenance of county roadways and bridges, enhancing the quality of life in rural Mississippi.
• $2.00 of each additional fee collected on the distinctive license plates issued shall be deposited into the Mississippi Burn Care Fund
• $2.00 of each additional fee collected on distinctive license plates issued shall be deposited into the state general fund.

These plates would feature the "Mississippi" script logo in white, on a black background with the county of registration underneath. Plates would be able to be customized with text.

The car community, by nature, has to purchase license plates. We just don't like designs, themes, or anything like that. Simple is the way to go!

Currently, we have two sponsors. On the House of Representatives side, we have Rep. Fred Shanks from House District 60, Rankin County, and on the Senate side we have Sen. Scott DeLano from Senate District 50, Harrison County. Please join us in voicing your support for this to pass in 2022!