Florida Senate - 2025 SB 824 By Senator Pizzo 37-00391A-25 2025824__ 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to specialty license plates; amending 3 s. 320.08058, F.S.; directing the Department of 4 Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to develop a 5 Supporting FHP Troopers license plate; providing for 6 distribution and use of fees collected from the sale 7 of the plate; amending ss. 320.08053 and 320.08056, 8 F.S.; exempting the plate from minimum presale voucher 9 requirements and minimum valid registration 10 requirements, respectively; providing an effective 11 date. 12 13 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 14 15 Section 1.Subsection (136) is added to section 320.08058, 16 Florida Statutes, to read: 17 320.08058Specialty license plates. 18 (136)SUPPORTING FHP TROOPERS LICENSE PLATES. 19 (a)The department shall develop a Supporting FHP Troopers 20 license plate as provided in this section and s. 320.08053. The 21 plate must bear the colors and design approved by the 22 department. The word Florida must appear at the top of the 23 plate, and the words Supporting FHP Troopers must appear at 24 the bottom of the plate. 25 (b)The annual use fees from the sale of the plate must be 26 distributed to the Florida Highway Patrol Advisory Council, 27 Inc., a nonprofit organization under s. 501(c)(3) of the 28 Internal Revenue Code, which may use up to 10 percent of the 29 fees for administrative costs and marketing of the plate. The 30 Florida Highway Patrol Advisory Council, Inc., must use the 31 remaining fees to fund scholarships, based on the councils 32 established criteria, for current members of the Florida Highway 33 Patrol and their family members who are attending a vocational 34 school, technical school, college, or university. For purposes 35 of this paragraph, the term family member means a spouse, 36 child, stepchild, or legally adopted child of the Florida 37 Highway Patrol member or a child raised in the home and claimed 38 by the Florida Highway Patrol member as a dependent under the 39 federal income tax code before the childs 18th birthday. 40 Section 2.Paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of section 41 320.08053, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 42 320.08053Establishment of specialty license plates. 43 (2) 44 (b)Within 24 months after the presale specialty license 45 plate voucher is established, the approved specialty license 46 plate organization must record with the department a minimum of 47 3,000 voucher sales before manufacture of the license plate may 48 commence. The department shall extend this presale period by an 49 additional 24 months for an approved specialty license plate 50 organization that, as of June 15, 2022, is in the presale period 51 but has not recorded at least 3,000 voucher sales. If, at the 52 conclusion of the presale period, the minimum sales requirement 53 has not been met, the specialty plate is deauthorized, and the 54 department shall discontinue development of the plate and 55 discontinue issuance of the presale vouchers. Upon 56 deauthorization of the license plate or if the plate has met the 57 presale requirement but has not been issued, a purchaser of the 58 license plate voucher may use the annual use fee collected as a 59 credit towards any other specialty license plate or apply for a 60 refund on a form prescribed by the department. This paragraph 61 does not apply to the Supporting FHP Troopers license plate 62 established under s. 320.08058(136). 63 Section 3.Paragraph (a) of subsection (8) of section 64 320.08056, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 65 320.08056Specialty license plates. 66 (8)(a)The department must discontinue the issuance of an 67 approved specialty license plate if the number of valid 68 specialty plate registrations falls below 3,000, or in the case 69 of an out-of-state college or university license plate, 4,000, 70 for at least 12 consecutive months. The department shall mail a 71 warning letter to the sponsoring organization following the 72 first month in which the total number of valid specialty plate 73 registrations is below 3,000, or in the case of an out-of-state 74 college or university license plate, 4,000. This paragraph does 75 not apply to any of the following: 76 1.In-state collegiate license plates established under s. 77 320.08058(3)., 78 2.License plates of institutions in and entities of the 79 State University System., 80 3.Specialty license plates that have statutory eligibility 81 limitations for purchase., 82 4.Specialty license plates for which annual use fees are 83 distributed by a foundation for student and teacher leadership 84 programs and teacher recruitment and retention., or 85 5.Florida Professional Sports Team license plates 86 established under s. 320.08058(9). 87 6.The Supporting FHP Troopers license plate established 88 under s. 320.08058(136). 89 Section 4.This act shall take effect October 1, 2025.