PROVIDENCE, R.I. — For graduates so proud of their alma mater that a bumper sticker won't cut it, the latest set of Rhode Island license plate proposals before the General Assembly would give them a more durable, refined way to show their support.

Special license plates bearing the logo of an individual Rhode Island college or university would be available to motorists if two bills passed by a state Senate committee Wednesday become law.

The proposed college plates would be the latest Rhode Island charity plates — from which the $40 fees are split between the state and respective nonprofit — joining such favorites as the Plum Beach Lighthouse plate and the Red Sox Foundation plate.

Also passed by the Senate Committee on Special Legislation and Veterans Affairs Wednesday was a bill to create a Cesar E. Chavez license plate in honor of the late Mexican-American labor leader. Proceeds would go to a scholarship fund.

Lawmakers passed several special plate bills last year, including the college plates bill, but a dispute between the House and Senate caused an abrupt end to the legislative session that prevented them from becoming law.

This year, along with the college and Chavez bills, lawmakers have filed legislation to create a plate for the Rocky Point Foundation and the Peace Corps.

And that's just the start.

Another set of proposals would eliminate the annual $60 renewal fee for so-called vanity plates, where the vehicle owner chooses the letters and numbers of his registration. And another two bills would allow vanity registrations on veterans plates.

Dwight Farrar, of Scituate, told the Senate committee that, since he retired from the Coast Guard in 1996, he has wanted to have his vanity registration "FARRAR" put on a veterans plate, only to be blocked by current rules.

Sen. Walter S. Felag Jr., D-Warren, chairman of the committee, said he wanted to check with veterans groups if they were concerned with inappropriate vanity messages on veterans plates. The bill was held for study.

Other license plate bills filed this year, and not heard Wednesday, would create special plates for "Gold Star Parents" — those who lost a child in military service — and for members of the Providence City Council.

And there are two "emeritus" license plate proposals for individuals, one for former North Providence Police Chief Ernest Spaziano and one for former emergency management director Thomas F. Senerchia, of West Warwick.

If approved by the General Assembly, the proponents of the new charity plates would begin taking orders in hopes of meeting the 900-plate minimum for the Division of Motor Vehicles to begin production.

Rhode Island currently produces six specialty license plates; another eight groups approved for plates by the General Assembly in recent years have not yet met the 900-plate threshold, according to DMV spokesman Paul Grimaldi. And five other groups appear to have abandoned plans to make charity plates, he said. One group, WaterFire, is still working on its design.

The bill to eliminate the $60 renewal fee for vanity plates, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lombardi, D-Cranston, did not bring any testimony Wednesday and was held for further study by the special legislation and veterans committee.

The DMV did not have an immediate estimate of how much eliminating those fees would cost the state.

panderson@providencejournal.com

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