New special license plates approved and other changes

During the 2011 session, we approved seven new specialty license plates that may be of interest to you or someone you know. They include plates for:

** Fallen Peace Officers: Fees collected for these plates will go to nonprofit organizations that help the surviving families and affected co-workers of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

Civil War Sesquicentennial license plate

** Civil War Sesquicentennial: Fees collected for these plates will go to the Iowa Battle Flag project.

** Five new veterans plates for those who’ve received the Combat Infantryman Badge, Combat Action Badge, Combat Action Ribbon, Air Force Combat Action Medal or Combat Medical Badge. Fees collected for these plates will be used to help Iowa veterans.

Before the new plates can be manufactured, each plate must have 250 start-up orders accompanied by a $20 processing fee. Once 250 start-up orders have been received for a plate type, the application to order the actual plates will be available.

For complete details, including designs, applications, fees and who is qualified to have the plates, go to http://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/ovs/newPlates2011.html.

Changes to regular Iowa license plates

Since July 11, new Iowa license plates also look a little different. The color of the text has changed from dark blue to black, which is expected to make license plates easier to read. You’ll notice this change on standard and specialty plates that have a blue and white background. The change does not apply to specialty plates that use a special color for text as part of their design, such as collegiate and firefighter plates.