New Environmental 'Legacy' License Plate Gobbling Up Coastal Commission Specialty Plate Revenue? - Michael Towner, Iconic Legacy.

California Legacy License Plate

​With the Legacy plate now passing over $27 million with 669,083 plates in circulation as of December 1, 2018, compared to $23,853,384 (450,955) in 2017, other California special interest plates have shown a significant decline. The Coastal Commission’s 'Whale Tail’ plate dropped from $6,054,721 (82,805 plates) in 2017 to $5,286,907 (79,934 plates) in 2018; the ‘Kids’ plate has dropped from $4,524,346 (109,967 plates) to $3,960,927 (107,721 plates); and the ‘Arts’ plate has dropped from $3,773,030 (52,840) to $3,297,539 (50,485). The only plates seeing an increase in sales from 2017 to 2018 are the newly introduced Breast Cancer Awareness ‘Pink’ plate, the Museum ‘Snoopy’ plate.
The reason for this could well be the influence of the cost of personalizing the specific plate. While every specialty plate requires an additional $50.00 fee to personalize the plate (known as the ‘Environmental License Plate Fund’ fee, which goes to the environmental fund, which is the same as where all of the funds from the Legacy plates go), the Legacy plate does not require the additional fee. So instead of it costing $103.00 for a personalized plate, the Legacy plate only costs $50.00 whether personalized or not. It also provides a ‘blank’ black canvas for the yellow lettering for personalizations up to 7 characters.
As much as the environmental fund is a great cause, so are the other causes supported by the other specialty license plates and all the while they are being charged extra, there will probably be a continued decline in their sales. Maybe it’s time to level the playing field and remove the ELP Fund fee for personalizing other specialty plates, since the ELP Fund is certainly doing very well with $27 million and counting in annual fees now going into that fund through the Legacy plate?

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