Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Fund-raising license plates, such as ones that benefit organ donation and lighthouse preservation, may be on the chopping block.

Bombarded with requests to approve a couple dozen more fund-raising plates for everything involving abortion and the Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore to Detroit sports teams, state Rep. Peter Pettalia, R-Presque Isle, is saying uncle.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives approved a bill he sponsored that would limit new fund-raising plates to 10 and put tougher criteria on the existing 14 license plates.

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“It costs about $180,000 to roll out one of these new plates, and one group will say this specialty plate is very important to their organization, while other people in Michigan will say ‘I don’t agree with that organization; why are my tax dollars being used for that?' " he said. “Michigan doesn’t belong in this business.”

Now, organizations have to come up with $15,000 to help defray the costs of developing and making the plates, but the Secretary of State estimates that cost at about $180,000. The bill would make the organization pick up more of that initial cost. The Legislature still would have to approve any new plates.

The 14 existing plates still would be able to be sold. But at least 500 plates per organization would have to be sold over a two-year period, or the plate would be dropped from the cache of available plates.

“I think three or four of the groups would fall off in the first two to three years,” Pettalia said. And that’s fine with him.

“If they really want to raise money, with Michigan only having one license plate (per vehicle), they should sell the front license plate,” he said.

The bill doesn’t affect the fund-raising license plates representing the state’s 15 public universities, the plates for veterans or vanity license plates.

The additional cost for the fund-raising plate for an individual driver is $35, with $10 of that going to the state and $25 going to the organization. A renewal plate costs $10 extra, and the entire amount goes to the organization.

The “Proud to be an American” fund-raising plate, which benefits the Red Cross and Salvation Army, has been the state’s biggest seller, with more than 25,000 sold last year. The Boy Scouts of America license plate was the lowest, with slightly more than 1,000 sold last year. The latest fund-raising plates to be approved were ones benefiting breast cancer awareness and Ducks Unlimited.

The plates brought in $1.1 million in revenue to the state last year and $18.5 million since specialty plates were first issued in 2001.

The bill — HB 5447 — passed on a 90-18 vote and now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal