DOT considering new license plate for Iowa

State transportation officials concede that Iowa's 13-year-old “silos and skylines” plate has just about had its day.

“We can't expect our plates to last forever,” said Tina Hargis, director of vehicle services for the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Hargis said the DOT has begun to talk with Iowa Prison Industries, which manufactures the state's license plates, about what it would take to reissue new ones. It's also begun discussions with other states that have recently issued new license plates in order to draw from their experience.

Iowa first issued the blue and white silos and skylines plate in 1997. In 1999, the embossed version of the plate was replaced by a flat plate, but the basic design didn't change.

Hargis said that it's important to begin planning for the process early, in part because there are so many of the current license plates already in inventory.  The county names are already imprinted on the plates, so it's not possible to redistribute license plates from one county to another in order to use up the inventory faster.

The DOT also needs to plan to minimize the impact on the state's fragile budget. More than 4.1 million Iowa license plates are in circulation, according to DOT records.

“Historically, when a plate reissue is done they do everybody in the same year and that's terribly expensive,” Hargis said. She said the state may do a “rolling reissue” rather than issue a new plate to every registered vehicle owner at once.

One way to save may be to skip sending new county plates to motorists who already have specialty plates, since those motorists might not want to trade in their specialty plates.

For instance, there are more than 32,000 Iowans driving around with specialty plates supporting the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and 36,713 plates issued to people with disabilities. More than 11,519 firefighters have specialty plates.

Hargis said a plate reissue couldn't occur before 2012, and may not begin in that year. The process hasn't even reached the point of considering what a new plate would look like.

Meanwhile, Hargis said, said “anyone can get a plate replacement if their plates have been damaged or are worn.”