Chime in if you want a special Texas license plate
Sarah Blaskovich, Pegasus News
The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles wants to know if you'd buy a branded license plate for Dr Pepper, the Dallas Mavericks, or several other groups. An online poll asks your opinion about nine special license plates, and comments will be open until May 1.
The potential new license plates were created by My Plates, an independent vendor hired by the state to raise money for the General Revenue Fund. You may remember that in January 2011, the company hosted an auction at Cowboys Stadium in which one bidder paid $15,000 for the license plate that said FERRARI — the only FERRARI license plate in the entire state of Texas now.
My Plates now has more than 80 special license plates for sale, and they want to add nine more. Those up for consideration are plates for Boise State University, Dallas Mavericks, Dr Pepper, Grambling University, San Antonio Spurs, University of Arizona, University of Illinois, University of Kansas, and University of Kentucky.
Strange choices, we thought -- especially the out-of-state schools. "The state told us, 'Go get people interested in plates,'" said Kim Miller Drummond, spokesperson for My Plates. "Not everyone in Texas went to school in-state. It's a Texas license plate, but they get to support their school," she said of the out-of-state universities on the list.
Once votes for and against each plate are collected, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles board will vote on each one in June. Non-personalized plates start at $55 a year, and plates are offered for one, five, or 10 years.
The Mavericks plate is likely the most popular in the list. The Mavs currently have a themed plate already available from the DMV, but Drummond said it "would allow very little creative freedom" because it was simply a white plate with the Mavericks' logo. The new plate is black, chosen in part because the Lone Star Black plate is My Plates' best seller.
"People just like the look of it," Drummond said.
For all plates, about 35-40% of the profits go to the state. Of the remaining profits, a portion goes to My Plates and a portion goes to the university, sports team, or company.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:30 CT on Thursday. The My Plates spokesperson said that the state does not get 50% of the profits as previously stated in a phone interview. More accurately, 35-40% goes to the General Revenue Fund.
