Wyoming License Plates Would Be Mailed, Not Redone Every 8 Years Under Proposal

State legislators are considering a bill that would not require a redesign of license plates every eight years. That means you can keep your plates until they wear out. Also, people would get them via mail, not their county treasurers.

RJ
Renée Jean

February 05, 20256 min read

State Rep. Cody Wylie, R-Rock Springs, has proposed significant changes to Wyoming's license plate rules.
State Rep. Cody Wylie, R-Rock Springs, has proposed significant changes to Wyoming's license plate rules. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily)

A bill that seeks to streamline the process of issuing plates for vehicles has passed the House Transportation Committee but is getting the opposite reaction from some Cowboy State voters online, who are questioning the idea of relying on the U.S. Postal Service for delivery of their plates.

House Bill 237 would charge the Wyoming Department of Transportation with issuing license plates rather than county treasurers. Registrations would still begin through county treasurer offices, although the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Cody Wylie says they could also handle registrations from the comfort of their living rooms, too.

The plates themselves, however, would be mailed to them by WYDOT after the registration is filed with county treasurers. There would be a 30-day grace period after a registration expires, to accommodate the extra time involved in getting a plate.

Wylie, in committee testimony on the bill last week, said his bill has several features that would lower the costs of making plates in the state, among them the fact that new plate designs would no longer be made every eight years.

That would mean there are no leftover plates that need to be chopped up and recycled for other purposes, and that people would be keeping their plates until the numbers are no longer legible. Plates would no longer be transported to and from county treasurer offices either, which would be another savings.

It also means people who don’t like the latest, new design would be stuck with it.

Wylie believes the bill will also mean it is easier to make specialty plates for fundraisers, which would eventually translate into more freedom for people to choose which plate they want to display.

“Our treasurers won’t have to store physical plates on the premises, which is going to allow some efficiencies there,” he said. “And folks will be able to sit at their home and have their registration and their plates show up to the door.”

It’s The Mailing Part That Worries Some

Kayla Overman is not so sure about the part where plates would be mailed to recipients, instead of getting picked up on the spot from the local county treasurer.

“This legislation means that while you still go to your local county treasurer for your paper registration, you will no longer go home with plates or stickers that same day,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Gillette/Campbell County -Buy, Sell, Trade or Free. “Instead, the notice of renewal will be transmitted to WYDOT who will have 30 days to drop your stickers or plates in the mail to you.”

Overman estimated the bill is going to cost the state at least a million dollars, based on the idea of hiring 10 to 15 people to do the work county treasurer offices were doing.

“I’m not sure that spending that amount of money on something that is already being done is sensible, but the House Transportation Committee sure seemed to think it was a great idea, as it passed out of there with a 7 to 2 vote,” she wrote. “If you don’t like this idea, NOW would be the time to reach out to your representatives on House Bill 0237.”

Overman’s post had attracted around 50 commenters, many of whom agreed that the idea of mailing plates isn’t one they like.

“This is so dumb,” Gail Wiegand wrote. “So now we have to wait for it to come in the mail. And the mail sucks. It takes so long to get your mail.”

“Hell no, the mail system is so broken that you might not get your tags or new plates,” wrote Mandi Frandsen Bryant.

“That is the dumbest thing I have heard,” wrote Jody Eric Geis. “Now you are going to have to buy the tags and plates a month earlier than normal the way the postal service is.”

Making Wyoming license plates: After the decals are stuck onto the aluminum plates, holes are punched and corners cut off.
Making Wyoming license plates: After the decals are stuck onto the aluminum plates, holes are punched and corners cut off. (Renée Jean, Cowboy State Daily)

County Treasurer Association Also Has Questions

People on Facebook weren’t the only ones with some questions about the bill.

Carbon County Treasurer Lindsey West, who is current president of the Wyoming County Treasurer’s Association, requested clarifying language on several points, including whether constituents may keep preferred plate numbers and whether registrations would need to physically occur at county treasurer offices.

“As far as any shifts in the duties of our offices, when we had our conversation as an association, it wasn’t the interpretation that registrations in our offices would be going away,” she said. “It was the interpretation of the association that you as a customer would still come to your county treasurer’s office, get the paper version of your registration, and then that would, in turn, be the application for WYDOT to stick the plates and stickers that correlate to that registration in the mail. So there may be some clarification that needs to be there.”

West also said she’s concerned about the perception constituents may have about customer service, given that people won’t get their actual plates at the county treasurer’s office anymore but must wait for them to arrive in the mail.

West said the Wyoming County Treasurer’s Association isn’t planning to take a position on the bill one way or the other but suggested there might be other ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, such as lengthening the timeframe between issuing plates with new designs.

“It’s certainly not an easy answer to the questions posed in the name of efficiency and convenience for license plates,” she said. “And certainly, each idea proposed kind of comes with its own layer of challenges and changes that would need to be made.”

As far as the costs of the bill, the official fiscal note didn’t have an estimate for costs, saying it was indeterminable.

“I just did look at the fiscal note from WYDOT, and I think we can handle that with decreasing registration fees for the participating counties, and that'll help offset that,” Wilie said.

Roll Call

Chairman of the House Transportation, Highways & Military Affairs Committee, Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, suggested Wylie bring amendments to clarify the points West was concerned about. However Wylie ultimately declined to make any amendments.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate right now to bring amendments,” he said, adding that he thinks most of the concerns about language just reflect “a little bit of growing pains, and we’re going to be OK.”

Voting for HB 237 were Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne; Rep. Rob Geringer, R-Cheyenne; Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, Rep. Darin Mccann, R-Rock Springs; Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne; Rep. Reuben Tarver, R-Gillette and Wylie.

Voting against were Rep. Dalton Banks, R-Cowley, and Ivan Posey, R-Fort Washakie. Banks said he was voting no because his county treasurer had concerns about the bill.

The bill was sent out of committee on Jan. 30 and is still awaiting consideration by the House as a whole.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.

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RJ

Renée Jean

Business and Tourism Reporter