Specialty License Plates:
HB 605 would create a new Florida specialty license plate called the “Supporting FHP Troopers” plate. The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles would be required to design and develop the plate, which would display “Florida” at the top and “Supporting FHP Troopers” at the bottom. The bill also directs how the annual use fees from the plate would be handled: they would go to the Florida Highway Patrol Advisory Council, Inc., a nonprofit organization, which could use up to 10 percent for administrative and marketing costs.
The remaining revenue would be used to provide scholarships for current Florida Highway Patrol members and their family members who are attending vocational school, technical school, college, or university. The bill defines eligible family members broadly to include spouses, children, stepchildren, legally adopted children, and certain dependent children raised in the home. It also exempts this plate from the usual specialty plate presale voucher requirement and from the minimum valid registration requirement that can otherwise cause a plate to be discontinued.
HB 605 would amend Florida’s specialty license plate statutes in sections 320.08058, 320.08053, and 320.08056, creating an exception for the new Supporting FHP Troopers plate from the state’s standard presale and minimum-registration rules. In practical terms, the bill would allow the plate to move forward without meeting the usual 3,000-voucher presale threshold and would protect it from automatic discontinuation if registrations fall below the normal 3,000-plate minimum. The bill would also establish a new revenue stream for scholarships benefiting Florida Highway Patrol personnel and their families through a designated nonprofit recipient.
The available legislative history suggests generally favorable treatment of the concept of honoring and supporting Florida Highway Patrol troopers through a specialty plate, but the bill did not advance beyond the Government Operations Subcommittee. There are no recorded committee transcripts or votes in the provided materials, so there is no direct evidence of debate, amendments, or formal opposition in the record supplied. The bill’s death in subcommittee indicates it did not secure enough support to continue through the process.
The main policy issue is the bill’s carve-out from Florida’s normal specialty plate safeguards. By exempting the Supporting FHP Troopers plate from presale voucher and minimum registration requirements, the bill would treat this plate differently from most others, which could raise concerns about precedent, administrative consistency, or the state’s standards for authorizing specialty plates. Another possible point of discussion is the use of proceeds through a nonprofit organization rather than direct state administration, including the allowance for up to 10 percent of fees to be used for administrative and marketing costs. No specific objections or supporters are identified in the provided record, but these statutory exceptions are the most likely areas of contention.