Bill would change some county-numbered license plates

Some Nebraska counties would have different license plate numbers under a bill heard by the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee Jan. 19.

Currently, farm truck and trailer registrations in counties with populations over 100,000 display county-numbered license plates. These include Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy counties.

Under LB811, introduced by Bancroft Sen. Lydia Brasch, these vehicles instead would use the alphanumeric system otherwise used in those counties, which displays three letters followed by three numbers.

Brasch said that using alphanumeric plates would save money and confusion.

“There are 4,434 farm plates in those three counties compared to the 1.9 million alphanumeric plates in those counties, so a relatively small number of plates will be affected,” she said. “Whenever an agency finds a way to cut its costs, we should support that.”

Rhonda Lahm, director of the state Department of Motor Vehicles, supported the bill, saying that it would ease the confusion caused by duplicate plates.

“We receive approximately 100 contacts per month from persons who’ve erroneously received notices about tolls and parking violations,” Lahm said. “The more we are able to eliminate confusion of the duplicate numbers, the less hassle there will be for our residents.”

No one testified in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action on it.