A lot of people are talking about the four contending designs for Indiana's new license plates -- here's the post at Fort Wayne Observed -- and you can go to the BMV's site and vote for your favorite. I think all four are kind of ugly, and I agree with Advance Indiana, which wonders why we even need new plates:
BMV Commissioner Ronald Stiver told Kim that of the 5.4 million non-truck plates in the state, nearly 60 percent are specialty plates. And what about those "In God We Trust" speciality plates the BMV has been doling out to customers as if it was Indiana's official state plate? BMV officials tell Stiver it has issued over 400,000 of those plate since January. So in a matter of three months about 7.5% of automobiles in this state have been tagged with the "In God We Trust" plate. At that rate close to a third of the automobiles will have the plate by year's end.
So why even bother issuing a new license plate? There is no significance to the official state plate when the vast majority of automobiles are tagged with a plate other than the official state plate. It is also unlikely people will give up a special plate to choose one of the four finalists the BMV has announced.
I'm one of those with specialty plates. I have the environmental one, which some people say is very unlibertarian of me, helping the government gobble up all that private land for parks. But I like the idea that we're deciding, by how many of us buy the plates, how much park land to acquire.
