The Connecticut General Assembly

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH

January 25, 1995 95-R-0068

You asked for a summary of the changes that have occurred in the statutory requirements governing the number of license plates Connecticut vehicles must have.

The law required Connecticut motor vehicles to have a front and a rear license plate until 1980. With the passage of PA 80-466, vehicles were required to have only a rear license plate and the normal registration period was made two years instead of one year. This legislation was enacted primarily for fiscal reasons. It originated in the Appropriations Committee and was referred to no other committees with cognizance over the substantive issues involved in going to a single plate. Going from two license plates to one and going to two-year registrations had been identified for the Appropriations Committee by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) as two of several budget options for cutting costs or raising revenue.

By 1986, the General Assembly had decided to reverse the requirement and go back to two plates for most vehicles. (Fire apparatus; motorcycles; camp trailers; commercial trailers; and vehicles displaying dealer, repairer, junk, or transporter plates were allowed to remain with one plate.) The legislature enacted PA 86-388 to convert back to two plates over a six-year period that began on July 1, 1987. All but the exempted classes of vehicles had to display two plates by July 1, 1993. The DMV commissioner had to issue two plates for all new registrations, beginning July 1, 1987. Two plates had to be issued for all registration renewals beginning July 1, 1991.

The July 1, 1993 date for full implementation of the conversion to two plates was delayed for two years by PA 90-106. This law, which became effective on July 1, 1990, gave the DMV another five, instead of three, years to complete the conversion within the personnel and funding that was available. The schedule for doing this was left to the commissioner to determine.

The last change to the two plate conversion law occurred in PA 93-341. Under this act, the final date of July 1, 1995 for completing the conversion was eliminated. Instead, the law now requires only that any vehicle for which the DMV issues two plates must display both of them. The rate at which vehicles will be issued two plates is now totally left to the DMV. In effect, the DMV continues to issue two plates for new registrations and plate replacements, but is under no statutory time schedule for completing the conversion process.

JJF:tjo