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Maybe our state government isn't ruled by the almighty dollar: Senate Bill 20 would eliminate vanity license plates in the state. PP cites coverage in today's Rapid City Journal in which state DMV director Debra Hillmer says its just too difficult for the DMV to keep track of all the dirty words people try to sneak onto their license plates.
Evidently Hillmer found all that First Amendment talk last spring just too darn big of a hassle and wants to do away with having to think about the Constitution whatsoever.
With the legislature talking about raising the gasoline tax, why would the state consider getting rid of the easy revenue source of vanity plates? Right now the state gets an extra $25 ($20 for motorcycles) for every person who feels the need to express himself with something more than a bumper sticker. We love voluntary taxes on ignorance of statistics in the form of the lottery; why not keep this less-destructive voluntary tax on vanity?
Let's take it a step further: let's all compose a list of potentially offensive character strings -- anything starting with "FU", "PIMPIN", "BUSHSUX", "PPRULZ", etc.). If a guy wants a vanity plate that says something like "PUPPIES" or "IMHAPPY", he pays the regular fee. But if he wants a plate with one of the messages on the naughty list -- sexual innuendo, social critique,
political advocacy, you name it -- he pays $500. That'll weed out the casual jokers and still boost our revenues. Then when we see an offensive license plate, we can all smile at the civic-mindedness of the owner for paying more taxes.
Hide Fido (by Andy Horowitz)
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I coined Noem as the ‘Palin of South Dakota’ when she ran for the state
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3 hours ago
It would be highly discriminatory and a violation of the First Amendment to charge a person more money because their vanity plate may imply something suspect. Here's an example: Chinese Professor Fu at DSU decides he wants a plate with his last name. Does a license plate with FU create an issue? Who makes the call?
ReplyDeleteOh! Dr. Fu! My apologies -- and double shame on me, as a fellow DSU-ian, for neglecting this obvious foul-up in my plan.
ReplyDeleteAh! But the solution is easy: Dr. Fu can have his name on his vanity plate... as long as he requests it in the original Chinese characters. ;-)
Here's an idea. Let's get rid of government license plates all together, then we wouldn't need to be having this argument. You shouldn't need to ask permission from the government to drive your car! The goverment has made dubious claims for years that their right to regulate automobiles is through the commerce clause in the competition. That might make sense for state-to-state commercial transportation, but that's not an endorsement from the constitution to regulate personal vehicles all the time, everywhere - that's just another big government intrusion into our lives that we don't need.
ReplyDelete