Gov. Spencer Cox signed SB45 Thursday night, along with many other state bills that cleared the Utah Legislature. The two license plates and front license plate requirements are two parts of the omnibus license plate revision bill.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, and Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, also makes a handful of other notable changes. It tacks on a new fee for personalized license plates and consolidates the registration month and year decals into one single decal instead of issuing one for each.

It also bans license plate covers or any frames that obscure any numbers or decals. Meanwhile, any license plate designs or redesigns will have to be approved by a review board. Individuals applying for a new sponsored special group plate would be required to pay an additional fee to cover the cost of printing and distributing the new designs.Some changes will go into effect in July, but most will go into effect next year.

General changes

The changes are the result of discussions into the state’s license plate laws that have gone on for some time, McCay explained during a committee meeting last month. Some of his constituents wanted to know if there was a way around having to drill holes in the front of their vehicles to install a front license plate.

The state already made some changes for new vehicles that weren’t manufactured with a front license plate bracket. This also sparked a review of front license plate compliance, which turned out to be fairly “low.”

So, McCay began meeting with the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles and Utah Highway Patrol over ways to overhaul the state’s license plate system without causing problems to either entity.

“We got to a place that, I think, they can support,” he said.

Front plates will still be required on apportioned vehicles and any intrastate commercial vehicles, per the bill. The license plate cover changes were included to make it easier for law enforcement to see and scan plates.

Personalized and specialty plates

McCay explained that the state’s personalized plate program also needed to be adjusted because it had become inefficient. Eliason had tried multiple times to remove the state’s program altogether, partly because of the costs but also because of vulgar requests. Those efforts died in the Utah Senate in both 2022 and 2023, however.

With SB45, the state will tack on a new $25 processing fee for personalized plates instead. This would be paid on top of the higher price of requesting personalized plates. Money from the fee will be sent to a restricted account to be spent in multiple ways, including efforts to hire new state troopers amid employee shortages and other “safety-related issues,” according to McCay.

The new $25 fee will be nonrefundable for people’s requests that are deemed offensive by the state.

The bill also addresses issues with specialized plates. These are white plates with a cause or organization honored on the plate; money from those purchases goes toward that organization, including a university. A sticker with the organization’s logo is placed on the left with a phase on the bottom.

But the stickers don’t always stick well and can fall off easily, McCay pointed out in a subsequent meeting. The Utah Division of Motor Vehicles will be required to be the central distributor of license plates in the future, where this issue can be better issued in printing.

“This way we felt like it could be better inventory, better quality and, as well, we hope to get to the consumer faster with their needed plate,” he said.

He added the changes are expected to cut costs tied to license plates by about $3.50 per plate once everything is implemented.

When the changes go into effect

The changes will take some time to go into effect.

Some changes begin on July 1, the start of the state’s 2025 fiscal year, while some will become law next year. Changes to the front license plate and registration decal will begin on Jan. 1, 2025. The same goes for new license plate fees.

According to the bill, the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles will have until July 1, 2025, to have the “technology and processes” in place to centrally distribute license plates.