This might put us back in the random category, but you're just going to have to deal with that.
I saw a survey recently that had Vermont ranked 10th among states for percent of vehicles with vanity license plates. The idea was that we were the 10th most vain state.
Just by pure observation, I had sensed that Vermont has more than than the usual share of motorists using their plates as a personal billboard. I had always assumed that must mean Vermont charges less than other states for the right of vanity.
Turns out that isn't really true. Vermonters pay $60 annual registration fee plus $35 for the vanity plate.
Texas, according to this American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators survey, had the lowest percentage of vanity plates. I would not necessarily characterize Texas as a particularly unvain state or lacking in people who've got something to say (just based on my relatives who live there). Yet a lower percentage of Texans drive around with clever little messages on their license plates than anywhere else in the country. It costs only $3.80 a year more to get a vanity plate in Texas than it does in Vermont.
Tennessee comes in the second-least vain state, and yet the state charges $38.50 a year less than Vermont for them. Indiana is next and charges $47 less.
OK, so Vermonters who want to say something on their tags are a highly motivated crowd. Hmm. Maybe they'd be willing to pay more - a sort of voluntary tax. After all, what is the risk? That fewer people get vanity plates? And the downside of that? Just a random thought.
- Terri Hallenbeck
