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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Jennings

DATE TYPED 03/02/05 HB

SHORT TITLE Retired State Police Officer License Plates

SB 976

ANALYST Ford

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY05

FY06

FY05

FY06

Minimal—

See Narrative

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Attorney General (AGO)

Department of Public Safety (DPS)

Department of Transportation (DOT)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 976 removes restrictions on the design on special registration plates for retired New

Mexico state police officers. Current law requires that the design conform to the general specifi-

cations in Section 66-3-424 NMSA 1978 and requires the secretary of taxation and revenue to

approve the final logo. This bill removes both those provisions, presumably leaving the design

of the special plates to the discretion of the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) of the Taxation and

Revenue Department (TRD).

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

MVD will incur minimal costs to design and approve a special license plate that departs from its

standardized design.

Senate Bill 976 -- Page 2

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

Section 66-3-424 NMSA 1978 provides for a standardized plate with a space for a unique logo

for individual associations or causes. This section was enacted in response to the numerous re-

quests for specialty plates that, while worthy of consideration, had the potential to overwhelm the

resources of the MVD. This bill departs from that standardized approach. Creating and approv-

ing a unique design for one license plate is not likely to be burdensome to MVD; however, it

may erode the standardized approach and lead to future requests for unique designs. These re-

quests could prove costly to MVD.

EF/lg