ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fourth Legislature, Second Regular Session
arts special license plates
Purpose
Establishes arts special plates and the Arts Special Plate Fund (Fund).
Background
The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) Motor Vehicle Division provides one license plate to every motor vehicle owner for each vehicle registered (A.R.S. § 28-2351). ADOT is required to issue or renew special license plates in lieu of regular license plates under specified conditions and procedures (A.R.S. § 28-2403). The fee for obtaining or renewing a special license plate is $25 (A.R.S. § 28-2402). From the $25 fee, $8 is an administration fee that ADOT deposits in the State Highway Fund (SHF) and $17 is considered a donation to the respective organization or charitable fund. ADOT currently offers over 70 special license plates.
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires ADOT to issue arts special plates if a $32,000 implementation fee is paid by December 31, 2020.
2. Requires the person who provides the $32,000 implementation fee to design the arts special plates, subject to approval by ADOT.
3. Allows the Director of ADOT (Director) to combine requests for arts special plates with personalized special license plates.
4. Specifies that a combined request is required to be submitted on a form prescribed by the Director and is subject to fees for both the arts special plate and personalized license plate.
5. Specifies that, of the $25 fee required to obtain or renew an arts special plate, $8 is an administration fee and $17 is an annual donation.
6. Establishes the Fund which is to be administered by the Director.
7. Requires ADOT to deposit all arts special plate administration fees into the SHF and all remaining monies into the Fund.
8. Requires the first $32,000 in the Fund to be reimbursed to the person who paid the initial implementation fee.
9. Requires no more than 10 percent of monies in the Fund to be used for administration costs.
10. Specifies that the monies in the Fund are continuously appropriated.
11. Requires the Director to annually distribute monies in the Fund, excluding administrative fees, to a qualified 501(c)(3) organization.
12. Outlines additional requirements that must be met by the qualified 501(c)(3) organization receiving donation monies from the Fund.
13. Requires the State Treasurer to invest and divest monies in the Fund on notice of the Director, with proceeds being credited to the Fund.
14. Contains a technical conditional enactment clause.
15. Makes conforming changes.
16. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
House Action
TRANS 2/19/20 DP 6-2-0-1
3rd Read 2/27/20 46-14-0
Prepared by Senate Research
March 6, 2020
ZD/OL/kja