​Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Friday which, among other things, will introduce 32 new specialty license plates onto the road. The bill, sponsored by former Rep. Jamie Grant, paves the way for the 32 new specialty license plates, establishes a cap of 150 specialty license plates and formalizes a discontinuation process for low performing specialty license plates.
HB 1135 also authorizes the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to issue specialty license plates for fleet and motor vehicle dealer vehicles.

​The bill also provides for a redesign of the Special Olympics tag to change the slogan to “Be a Fan”; redistribution of proceeds for the “Live the Dream” license plate to be limited to Sickle Cell organizations and the Miami based Chapman Partnership, with March of Dimes and Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions being deleted, and the DMV now responsible to pay a 5% royalty fee to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. for the use of the image of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ; and a change in the use of proceeds for “In God We Trust” tag with up to 90% to be utilized to provide education in public and private schools regarding the historical significance of religion in American and Florida history. The revenue from the Florida Law Enforcement Officer license plates, originally distributed to the Police and Kids Foundation, Inc., to invest and reinvest, and the interest earnings must be used for the operation of the Police and Kids Foundation, Inc., now may be directly used for the operations, activities, programs, and projects of the Police and Kids Foundation, Inc.  Preserve Vision Florida is changing their name on their plate from Prevent Blindness.

​A cap of 150 plates is now in place, with 32 new plates created by the bill, provided they meet the presell requirementswith the current number of plates at 122. 
To create the new plate, the organization must submit its proposed art design to DHSMV as soon as practicable, but no later than 60 days after October 1, 2020 . Within 120 days from October 1, 2020, DHSMV must establish a method to issue a specialty license plate voucher allowing for the presale of such plate. The $5 processing fee, the service charge and branch fee, and the annual use fee for the specialty license plate are charged for the voucher. All other applicable fees are charged at the time the license plate is issued. The presell is now 3,000 (4,000 for out of state colleges)
The bill provides that new specialty license plates that have been approved by law but are awaiting issuance will be issued in the order they appear in s. 320.08058, F.S., provided all requirements, including the presale requirement, have been met. If the next awaiting specialty license plate has not met the presale requirement, DHSMV must proceed in the order provided in law to identify the next qualified specialty license plate that has met the presale requirement. DHSMV must cycle through the list in statutory order.
If the Legislature has approved 150 or more specialty license plates, DHSMV may not make any new specialty license plates available for design or issuance until a sufficient number of plates are discontinued so that the number of plates being issued is reduced to fewer than 150.

DHSMV must cycle through the list in the following statutory order:

1. Ducks Unlimited “Conserving Florida Wetlands” (Ducks Unlimited, Inc.)
2. Auburn University “War Eagle” (Tampa Bay Auburn Club)
3. University of Georgia (Georgia Bulldog Club of Jacksonville)
4. University of Alabama “Roll Tide” (The Pensacola Bama Club)
5. Beat Childhood Cancer (75% to Beat Nb and 25% to Ryan Callahan Foundation)
6. Walt Disney World (Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and Northern Florida, Inc.)
7. Florida 4-H (Florida 4-H Club Foundation, Inc)
8. Donate Life Florida “Donors Save Lives” (Donate Life Florida and the Joshua Abbott Organ and Tissue Donor Registry)
9. Florida State Beekeepers Association “Save the Bees”
10. Rotary (Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, Inc.)
11. Highwaymen (City of Fort Pierce)
12. Dan Marino Campus “Marino Campus” (Dan Marino Foundation, Inc.)
13. Orlando City Soccer (55% to the Professional Sports Development Trust Fund within the Department of Economic Opportunity; 455 to Enterprise Florida, Inc.)
14. Daughters of the American Revolution (to to promote patriotism, preserve American history, and secure America’s future…)
15. Gadsden Flag “Don’t Tread on Me” (Florida Veterans Foundation, Inc.)
16. America the Beautiful (Live Laugh Love Give, Inc.)
17. Explore Off Road Florida “Explore Off Road” (Florida Off Road Foundation, Inc.)
18. American Eagle “In God We Trust” (American Eagle Foundation, based in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee)
19. Guardian Ad Litem “Heartfelt Child Advocacy (Florida GAL Foundation, Inc.)
20. Jumbo Shrimp (St. Johns Riverkeeper, Inc.)
21. Thank a Lineman (Lake-Sumter State College Foundation, Inc.)
22. Best Buddies “BestBuddies.org” (Best Buddies International, Inc.)
23. The Divine Nine (Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Iota Phi Theta, United Negro College Fund)
24. Florida Bay Forever (Florida National Parks Association, Inc.)
25. Bonefish and Tarpon Trust
26. Coastal Conservation Association “Conserve Florida’s Fisheries” (Coastal Conservation Association Florida)
27. Johnson and Wales University (Johnson and Wales University-North Miami)
28. Florida Stands with Israel (Hatzalah of Miami-Dade, Inc.)
29. Give Kids the World (Give Kids the World, Inc.,)
30. Marine Corps League (Marine Corps League, Department of Florida)
31. K9s United (K9s United, Inc.)
32. Florida Native “Native” (Florida Native Plant Society, Inc.)

The bill requires DHSMV to discontinue the specialty license plate with the fewest number of plates in circulation, including license plates exempt from a statutory sales requirement on January 1 of each year. For the specialty license plates in the bottom 10 percent of sales, the bill requires DHSMV to mail a warning letter to the sponsoring organizations.
Effective July 1, 2023, the bill requires DHSMV to discontinue the issuance of approved specialty license plates if the number of valid registrations falls below 3,000 plates (4,000 for out of state colleges) for 12 consecutive months.
In addition to the existing exemption from the 3,000 plate sales requirement for in-state collegiate license plates, the bill provides exceptions from the discontinuance requirement for license plates:
· For institutions in and entities of the State University System;
· With statutory eligibility limitations for purchase;
· For which the annual use fees are distributed by a foundation for student and teacher leadership programs and teacher recruitment and retention; and
· Florida Professional Sports Team license plates.

​The bill requires DHSMV, in cooperation with the independent colleges and universities, to create a standard template specialty license plate with a unique logo or graphic identifying each independent college or university. Each independent college or university may elect to use this standard template specialty license plate in lieu of its own specialty license plate. Annual use fees from the sale of these license plates are distributed to the independent college or university for which the logo or graphic is displayed and must be used as provided in s. 320.08058(3), F.S. 
Independent colleges and universities opting to use the standard template specialty license plate will have their plate sales combined for purposes of meeting the 3,000 plate minimum sales threshold and determining the 150 plate limit. These plates must be ordered directly from DHSMV.
Prior to the development of an out-of-state college or university license plate, DHSMV must have documentation on file indicating the college or university has consented to use an appropriate image on the license plate.
The bill prohibits any entity from using specialty license plate revenue for lobbying. The current prohibition is limited to agencies.

​According to Kevin Jacobs, Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, creation or modification of specialty and special license plates require system programming to implement. Depending on the number of distributions tied to the plate, the amount of programming may vary as will the resources needed to complete the changes. The average specialty/special license plate with a single distribution requires approximately 200-250 hours of programming, at a rate of $35 to $40 per hour. The bill creates 32 new specialty license plates, four new special license plates and removes from law five specialty license plates that have been discontinued. While DHSMV has not determined its fiscal impact, it is likely to be between $7,000 and $10,000 per plate created. Many existing plates had to pay a fee of $60,000.00 to cover those costs in the past. DHSMV states the cost to perform an audit every three years of each specialty license plate may result in a workload impact that can also be absorbed within existing resources.
DeSantis signed the bill on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the “Florida Stands with Israel” tag was originally submitted to the House in a separate bill co-sponsored by House Minority Leader Kionne L. McGhee and Rep. Scott Plakon.
“This shows that our relationship with the State of Israel touches upon many of Florida’s most vital interests, values, and ideals,” the pair said in a joint statement. “Accordingly, the overwhelming majority of Floridians support this special relationship and now have a wonderful way to celebrate it.” Plakon in a separate statement recognized the plate’s symbolic passage. “I cannot think of a sweeter way to wish Florida’s Jewish community a Shana Tova – Happy New Year!” he added.
Current law prohibits the redesign of a specialty license plate unless the inventory of the license plate has been depleted. However, the organization may purchase the remaining inventory of the specialty license plate from DHSMV at the department’s cost.133 Special Olympics Florida may be required to purchase the remaining inventory of its specialty license plate at DHSMV’s cost prior to the authorized redesign of its license plates.

​Although sales and revenue for specialty license plates indicated a significant downward turn with the closing of DMV offices and some Tax Collectors offices to the public in certain parts of the state in the last week of the month of March, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, total revenue from the sale of Specialty License Plates for the first six months of 2020 only dropped by 2.7% to $16,365,550.00, compared to $16,802,378.00 for the first six months of 2019.

Although this represents a $436,828.00 drop in revenue, some plates have done quite well, with Endless Summer increasing 3% from $959,875.00 for the first half of 2019 to $987,000.00 for the first half of this year. Miami Heat saw a 13.5% increase in revenue from $550,400.00 to $624,700.00. The other top selling plates all saw a decline, with UF dropping from $1,045,975 to $993,200.00; Helping Sea Turtles Survive dropping from $901,255.00 to $886,696.00 and FSU dropping from $813,800.00 to $771,400.00.
Total new plate/new issue sales dropped 25% from 106,793 in the first six months of 2019, to 85,448 in the first six months of 2020. Despite this, some plates fared well, including Miami Marlins, Florida Sheriff's Association, Support Autism, UCF and the Tampa Bay Bucs and Lightning. Visit our Lights saw new plate sales increase from 364 to 778 and revenue increased 25% from $59,450.00 to $74,550.00.
Some plates saw significant declines in the first six months of 2020 compared to 2019, including Choose Life (-10.5%), from $190,960.00 to $171,040.00; Parents Make A Difference (-58%) from $17,925.00 to $7,725.00 and Protect Wild Dolphins (-6%) from $472,580.00 to $445,200.00.
Total revenue from the sale of Florida Specialty License Plates for the month of July, 2020 increased slightly to $2,983,780.00, compared to $2,919,801.00, for July 2019. New plate sales also increased to 19,448 from 18,779.
Miami Heat new plate sales increased to 1,249 for the month of July, 2020, compared to 880 in July, 2019 and revenue increased to $115,750.00 from $96,400.00.
Tampa Bay Bucs maintained their 'Brady effect' by increasing new plate sales for the month of July, 2020 to 867 compared to 513 last year and saw revenue increase to $85,300.00 from $73,700.00.
Endless Summer increased total revenue for July to $198,575.00 compared to $177,025.00 in July, 2019.
Some plates saw revenue declines for July 2020 compared to 2019, including UF, FSU, Golf Capital of the World, Protect Wild Dolphins, and Choose Life.
Statistics received from the DMV show that total revenue from specialty license plate sales in August, 2020 dropped to $2,701,403.00 from $2,798,122.00. New plate sales increased from 18,858 to 18,935, however, renewals of specialty plates fell from 101,595 to 96,784. Similarly, total non-specialty plate registrations fell from 1,189,727 in August 2019, to 1,131,144 for August 2020.
So far in 2020, through August 31, over $22 million has been raised from specialty license plate sales in Florida and 948,971 specialty plates have been sold/renewed.
Endless Summer was the highest grossing plate in August, 2020 with $182,075.00, increasing from $171,250.00.
Revenue for the Protect Wild Dolphins license plate for Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation continued to decline, from $76,000.00 in August, 2019 to $72,160.00 in August, 2020. Choose Life dropped from $31,700.00 to $25,820.00.