Salt Lake Telegram | 1941-01-07 | Page 8 | License Plate Changes Eyed

LICENSE PLATE 1 CHANGES EYED . Automobile license plates and revenues they produce will be a popular 1941 legislative subject, checks revealing Tuesday several changes In vehicle registration to be proposed In the twenty-fourth legislature, convening Monday. Although a bill has not been pre-pared, pre-pared, enforcement officers are still Interested in a system of prefixes pre-fixes Indicating counties in which plates are issued. Automobiles Involved In hit-run accidents and when stolen are much easier to Identify with the prefix system. Witnesses catching the prefix, although unable to read - the entire plate on a moving machine, ma-chine, are able to confine Identity ef the car to a single county in reporting to officers. AM Identification ' Should hit-run accident witnesses wit-nesses also Identify make of the ear. as welt as observe the county - prefix on license plates, the field Is greatly narrowed In trying to apprehend the driver, officers ar- rue. The state tax commission, distributor dis-tributor of plates, raises some administrative ad-ministrative objections to the plan, but Commissioner R. E. Hammond said objections "are not insurmountable insur-mountable If the prefix system is desirable." Adoption of the proposal would necessitate stocking plates prefixed pre-fixed for all other counties for sale In each county, he explained. Motorists Mo-torists changing residence from one county to another during the year would nullify to an extent good resulting from prefixes, he believes. be-lieves. fcyatem Simpler The present prefix system, which tt not limited to counties, was employed em-ployed to simplify plates, but further fur-ther simplification could be made by adding two prefixes, Mr. Hammond Ham-mond said. Under that system, he said, easily read plates could be produced such as: SL 75. If a proposal of the commission ' Is adopted, cost of plates will be reduced from $5 to S3. This change likely will be offered In an administration admin-istration bill. Mr. Hammond said. Registration revenues, except approximately ap-proximately $800,000 annually which goes to counties and municipalities munici-palities for class B and C road Improvements, Im-provements, have gone for debt aervice on state road bonds. Last of these bonds, $1,000,000 worth, will be matured soon, wiping wip-ing out the need for the added registration revenue, Mr. Hammond Ham-mond said. However, cities . and rounties have been interested In these revenues and may oppose any attempts lo reduce license fees. Several legislators expressed Intentions In-tentions of sponsoring legislation providing for sale of plates In county seats. If these bills take the form of those introduced In previous previ-ous legislative sessions, county officers of-ficers would sell the plates and some of the revenues would go to the counties.