Wisconsin License Plates (Madison, Oregon, Washington: school, taxation, live)

[BacktoNE]

Originally Posted by KateDaum

New Hampshire bases their license fees on the year and make of your car. It is so expensive to register a car there. And you have to have your car inspected and shell out more money. It was crazy there. A lot of the northeast states charge very high registration fees.

Maine is like that too. Crazy expensive to keep a car on the road. I do firmly believe in annual motor vehicle inspections though and wish that WI would mandate them. It's an easy thing to do and only costs $15 a year, or at least that is all we paid.

[JoshB]

Originally Posted by Suzanne1945

Speciality tags--another way for the state to make money. In Florida, the inital special tag 'tax' began at $15. It is a way for the driver to show allegiance/loyalty to some cause. So many think that FL is a 'cheap' state to live in because 'taxes' are so low. Well, most of us consider the $15 surcharge as taxes with a different name.

Suzanne I see that your not really for this. I guess that the state would be making money, BUT that doesn't mean your cost of plates would go up. What I think the state needs to do is redesign the main plates that are issued. Then maybe redesign the "Endangered Resources" & "Childrens Plates" maybe throw a little color into them. For Wisconsin plates I think they should do a design that maybe has the bluffs of La Crosse with some Northwoods stuff and some farming stuff. Why, Because many of Wisconsin cultural influence is french and that's where La Crosse kind of fits in. The Northwoods, because they played such a huge role in our history. There was logging, and there still is cranberry farms/bogs etc. The third reason, well "farming" has been a part of our history for God knows how long? So I think that those three main ideas could unravel something eye pleasing.

Or, You know the logo on the Wisconsin State Flag? Maybe tie that into a license plate.

Sorry for any bad grammar or run-on sentences. lol

[Drover]

Originally Posted by BacktoNE

Maine is like that too. Crazy expensive to keep a car on the road. I do firmly believe in annual motor vehicle inspections though and wish that WI would mandate them. It's an easy thing to do and only costs $15 a year, or at least that is all we paid.

I would be with you if I saw any evidence that these mandated inspections actually made the roads any safer. When I lived in PA they would use "safety" inspections to keep cars off the road for reasons that had nothing to do with safety, such as finding a rust hole larger than a quarter or requiring a functioning odometer. What the hell that has to do with safety, I don't know. But it had the effect of reducing the available pool of cars that the poor could afford. I sometimes wonder if that wasn't the actual purpose.

[HKB]

I'm somewhat of a license plate nerd, and IMO Wisconsin has the worst design out of all 50 states (I'm talking about the standard design, not specialty plates). I'd love to have a distinctive and eye-catching plate like some states do. When you see a plate from Colorado, Oregon or Wyoming, you can instantly recognize it without having to read it.

[JoshB]

HKB, I'd admit I'm also a plate nerd as well. lol I think a puddle of olive oil looks nicer than our license plates.

[ekg56]

I remember when WI had the yellow plates and we still have some old ones that were my Grandfathers. They were brown at one time.
I would like to see some more colors in our plates too. I love driving down the highway and seeing other states plates.
Chicago use to have mandatory emission control tests on your cars.

[wanderlusting]

Yep, Wisconsin does have the worst plate design. Put that right up there with the worst state quarter design and it's obvious that WI has a shortage of creative people.

[JoshB]

Wow, so far 90.48% of you said that yes you would like them changed while 9.52% said no. I just wonder when the state ever plans on retiring the white plates?

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by JoshB

CD members,
If you ask me, I think Wisconsin plates are kind of bland. I liked the sesquincentenial (Spelling?) plates. I thought about maybe trying to design a new plate that has to do with a certain region of the state. Maybe one called the friends of Devils Lake or something? I see states like North Carolina and Tennessee have tons of license plates offered. Any ideas for new plates?

The basic WI plate sucks. Please... "America's Dairyland"? I only dread what they would put, if it wasn't "America's Dairyland". What... "Green Bay Packer State"?

I have a couple of cars in WI which is why I'm familiar, although I live in AZ most of the time. No offense to clouds, farmers, or a fence(?), but what a dumb license plate WI has. It's straight from the 80s anyway, so it's time to move on to something a little bit more modern. At the time, it beat the old "bumble bee" license plates (yellow with black). But at this point the current plate is ancient and needs to be replaced.

I'd agree on the Sesquicentennial license plate. I used to have one, but I didn't renew it and now I don't think I can get it back. That plate highlighted some of what I thought were the best qualities of Wisconsin, without having to put something farm or milk related on it. I don't know why it was a limited issue, as opposed to the butt-ugly one that we currently have.

And while we're at it, the state ought to can that ghastly "Celebrate Children" license plate. Sorry, that's the current equivalent of "Baby On Board" signs that people used to put in their cars. Translation: "As owner of this license plate, I am no longer responsible for breaking traffic laws, because I'm doing it for The Children." No offense to people who have this plate.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by wanderlusting

Yep, Wisconsin does have the worst plate design. Put that right up there with the worst state quarter design and it's obvious that WI has a shortage of creative people.

My god you aren't kidding about that. That is the worst state quarter design that exists. What's sad, is that there were other earlier designs that were much more appealing, and didn't involve farms, milk, cheese, or cows.

I like Montana's quarter, personally.

The license plates are just the tip of the iceberg. Wisconsin needs to get past the simpleton image that it keeps perpetuating. The farm and dairy industry is very important to the state, but WE GET IT already. Not everyone in WI is a dairy farmer, there are many other appealing things about Wisconsin, such as the outdoors (duh) which offers something for everyone at some point in the year. Or just the natural beauty. Some average parts of Wisconsin are much more beautiful than the best that some other states have to offer. And at the end of the design, they came up with a slab-o-cheese and a cow. In other words, Wisconsin=farm.