Buddy Nabors is proud to display his Vietnam veteran specialty license plate.
He is less enthusiastic about paying the extra $31 it takes to purchase the specialty plate.
“I have the option (of buying the specialty plate), but I’m proud to be a veteran,” Nabors said. “I don’t feel like I should have to be penalized just because I want to display my veteran plate.”
The Vietnam veteran plate is one of many specialty license plates Mississippi drivers have the option of purchasing for their vehicles. Most are $31, but they range from $1 to $51 according to the Mississippi Department of Revenue’s website. A select few are even free, as Nabors pointed out.
In a letter to The Dispatch, Nabors wrote that veterans should be exempt from paying for specialty plates because of the sacrifices they have already made for their country. He was willing to change his mind, however, when he learned that $30 of what he pays for his specialty plate goes to a veterans’ nursing home.
“If it goes to general funds or a different area, then it would definitely be something I wouldn’t like,” Nabors said. “But if it does (go to help veterans), that would be great.”
The Vietnam veteran specialty tag is one of the few tags in which all but $1 of the price goes to an organization that sponsors the plate, rather than a government department. For most tags priced at $31, $2 goes to the county tax collector, $2 goes to the State Highway Fund and $1 goes to the Mississippi Burn Center, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the revenue department. This also applies to some other veteran tags, including Iraq veteran and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps medal tags.
The remaining $24 goes to the organization that sponsors the specialty tag, which means for every veteran specialty plate purchased, at least $24 — often more — goes to an organization that helps veterans.
The same payoff applies to other specialized tags. For every Down Syndrome awareness license plate purchased, the Central Mississippi Down Syndrome Society receives $24; for every Mississippi Home of the Blues plate purchased, $24 goes to the Blues Heritage Fund.
The specialty plates are all sponsored by the organization that receives the money, said Kathy Waterbury, a spokesperson for the MDOR. She said the organizations have to ask state lawmakers for the authority to sponsor specialty plates. The Legislature then sets the prices for the plates.
In Fiscal Year 2014, Mississippians purchased 683,550 specialty license plates, according to a MDOR report. Sponsoring organizations received about $5.11 million alone from the purchase of those tags.
There are over 100 specialty license plates to purchase, from tags for schools, clubs and professions, to those promoting awareness of diseases like autism and breast cancer, according to the MDOR’s website.
The most popular specialty plates in Mississippi, judging by the amount spent on them, are for colleges and universities. Colleges and universities, both in and out of state, received about $1.7 million FY 2014, according to the MDOR. Of the university plates purchased, 18,367 of them were for Mississippi State University, while 15,596 were for the University of Mississippi.
The organization that received the most money from specialty plates in Mississippi was the Wildlife Heritage, which received $544,320, followed by the Veterans Nursing Home Funds, which received $292,320.
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