SPRINGFIELD, IL – As the Illinois General Assembly is quickly winding down the days to the scheduled adjournment of May 7, State Senator Dan Rutherford (R-Pontiac) is questioning the need for more specialty license plates.
"I believe our time debating bills could be better used on the state’s fiscal crisis,” Rutherford said. “The General Assembly has already approved over 80 specialty plates and just in the past couple weeks, we have approved six more."
Each specialty plate comes with an estimated $50,000 start-up cost. Rutherford also noted his legislation, now more than 12 years old, has not been promulgated to help reduce the financial burden of specialty plates.
The Universal Charitable License Plate measure sponsored by Senator Rutherford in 1997 was meant to standardize the specialty plating system. Charitable organizations would apply to participate, and if approved, would affix their logo to the universal specialty plate.
"The past couple weeks alone, the General Assembly has added $300,000 for specialty plate creation," Rutherford concluded. "This is another example of misplaced priorities."