State transportation committee discusses HB 718 – eliminating paper license plates
AUSTIN (CBSNewsTexas.com) – State lawmakers are under pressure to move bills out of committee before time runs out this legislative session. Included in the rush: HB 718, which would eliminate virtually all temporary license plates in Texas, requiring dealers to put metal plates on every vehicle they sell.
"This is a very serious vote. I'm going to encourage all of you to vote for it," Sen. Robert Nichols told members of the Senate Transportation Committee this morning. "Those paper plates are all over the place."
Unlike real plates, which are linked to the vehicle owner's name and address, fakes effectively turn vehicles into "ghost cars," which can then be used for crime. CBS News Texas first started investigating the issue in 2017. At the time, Dallas County authorities told us 90% of the paper license plates on the streets were fraudulent.
Grand Prairie's police chief took up the cause last fall, after one of his officers was killed while chasing a car with a fake tag. The tag on that car had been copied hundreds of times, and was found on hundreds of vehicles across North Texas.
In January, Chief Daniel Scesney showed us how it took a simple computer program and a few minutes to make a custom fake. Then he sent us out on the streets to see the issue up close.
Scesney himself has hit the road several times this year, traveling to Austin to meet with lawmakers and testify in favor of the legislation. Each time he was surrounded by law enforcement agencies from across Texas who also support the bill.
Scesney was there Friday as the transportation committee discussed the need to address the issue. "We're not only contaminating our state, we're sending these things all over the United States," said Nichols. "We're sending them to Florida, Georgia, California, New Jersey."
Not everyone is on board with the bill. The Texas Auto Dealers Association and some county tax officials have raised questions about how the new system would work. Many of the concerns revolve around how to handle the increase in metal plates. Smaller counties are worried about tracking the inventory, and dealers say they are worried about security, since the metal plates could become a larger target for thieves.
Sen. Nichols convinced committee members to vote the bill out of committee pending amendments. "We've had people die - our officers have died trying to enforce these rules. And so, we are going to fix this thing," he said. Minutes later, Chief Scesney and others huddled together to hammer out the language and hopefully come to a compromise.
HB 718 could hit the Senate floor next week; once approved there it would go back to the House for final approval.