New Nevada law may require new plates

CARSON CITY — Most Nevada motorists will have to get new license plates every eight years under a new law that takes effect today, July 1.

Assembly Bill 484 passed by the 2015 Legislature and signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval was requested by law enforcement agencies because too many plates are unreadable or have lost their reflectivity to be viewable at night.

By law, license plates at night must be readable from about 100 feet, said Dave Wiley, services manager at the Department of Motor Vehicles and overseer of the inmate-staffed state license plate factory.

But the retro-reflective sheeting that gives license plates that illuminating quality deteriorates in the heat, cold, and ultraviolet rays from the sun.

The elements dim the properties of license plates “just like the paint of your car would fade” if left outside in scorching sun, said Sean McDonald, DMV central services administrator.

New plates will be issued every eight years and will come with an $8 fee.

But state officials know their limits and will not require replacement of pre-1982 blue-and-white license plates that have come to be a status symbol for longtime residents.

The original blue plates were issued from 1970 to 1982.

McDonald conceded the “traditional and historic” pride associated with the old design, and officials remember the outcry when the state changed its general issue plates in the early 1980s to the now-retired big horn sheep plates that were commonly referred to as “goat plates.”

Nevada adopted the current “sunset” design around 2000.

Also exempt from replacement are the special plates issued for Nevada’s 125th and 150th anniversaries of statehood.

Drivers with other specialty plates — and there are dozens — that help support various causes, such as Lake Tahoe conservation, wild horses and the V&T Railroad, will not have to pay the replacement fee because those plates already have a $10 levy attached to them when renewed annually.

Kevin Malone, DMV spokesman in Las Vegas, said the department’s goal over the next three years is to clear a backlog of roughly 720,000 plates that exceed the eight-year threshold, along with about 140,000 that will reach that age limit each year.

Wiley stressed the department is not trying to make money off the replacement program.

“The recovery fee for a license plate is a regulation,” he said, explaining that the fee pays for the cost to make them and operate the plant.

“We are not working for a profit,” Wiley said. “We just want to stay solvent.”

Getting replacement license plates under the new Nevada law won’t require a dreaded trip to a Department of Motor Vehicles office.

McDonald said vehicle owners will be notified by mail if their plates are targeted for reissuance when they get their annual registration notice.

After registration fees are paid, the new plates, which will be the same number as the old ones, will be sent through the mail but will come separately from the registration tag.

Anyone informed their plates are being reissued should wait until their new plates arrive before applying the registration sticker.

Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com. Find @SandraChereb on Twitter.