A total of 85 specialty Montana license plates are on the chopping block because of new state legislation, including multiple specialty plates specific to the Flathead Valley.

Starting in January, the Montana Motor Vehicle Department doubled the requirement for specialty license plates from 200 plate holders to 400. As a result, 85 of the state’s 250-plus specialty license plates—which largely benefit nonprofits—will be discontinued.

Some of the organizations with their own specialty license plates are holding out hope, since the state recently granted a three-month extension for plates that didn’t meet the 400-person requirement.

“The sponsor organizations have been granted a one-time only grace period until July 1, 2020, to provide additional time to increase their sales,” according to an announcement on the Montana Motor Vehicle Department web page. “The plates are available for purchase or renewal during the extension period.”

With this extension, organizers such as Heidi Van Everen with Whitefish Legacy Partners are crossing their fingers that their plates might not be discontinued after all. Van Everen is cautiously hopeful the grace period might give the Whitefish nonprofit time to find enough drivers to meet the 400-plate minimum. But she also expressed hope this delay might lead to the eventual revocation of the decision to discontinue low-selling plates, which Van Everen said was confusing and unexpected from the get-go.

“We were a little shocked,” Van Everen said when Whitefish Legacy Partners received a notification about the increased requirement in the mail last fall.

Whitefish Legacy Partners is one of many organizations around the state and a handful in the Flathead Valley that use revenue from the specialty license plate program to support their nonprofits.

Each specialty license plate includes a $20 donation to the sponsor organization and costs an additional $10 in administrative costs, $10 in production costs and $20 renewal donation.

Van Everen said the specialty license plates generate about $5,000 per year for the group to run operations and maintain the Whitefish Trail. Since the first payout from the program in April 2014, Van Everen said Whitefish Legacy Partners has taken in almost $18,000 through the program, and the license plates account for about 8% of its annual trail operations and maintenance budget. These funds take care of responsibilities such as paying state fees, plowing the trailheads, pumping vault toilets, supplying toilet paper, guard rail replacements and signs.

If the plates do get discontinued, Van Everen said the group will have to find an alternative way to fund these tasks. “We’re going to have to find something, but we don’t have it figured out yet.

“It just seemed so quick,” she noted. She said the entire process of discontinuing the specialty plates has been murky and hard to understand. When Whitefish Legacy Partners first got the letter in the fall about the increased requirement, Van Everen said the announcement wasn’t clear about the changes or their timeline. She was under the impression they had until December 2020 to hit the 400-person mark, until she was notified in January the Whitefish Legacy plate was on the list of plates scheduled to be discontinued.

Since Whitefish Legacy Partners currently has a little over 200 plate holders, Van Everen wasn’t overly optimistic about their chances of suddenly doubling that number. But she said she was a little chagrined by the abrupt change to the requirement.

“It would be a big push for doubling the number,” she acknowledged. “It feels like the 400-plate cutoff is a high number.”

There’s also confusion behind the sudden increase. One reason given was the cost of creating the multitude of individual plates, but Van Everen said she didn’t understand where that cost comes from since organizations pay up-front for the plates to be created.

Whitefish Legacy Partners paid $4,000 in 2013 to start creating its own license plates.

Van Everen said the leadership at Whitefish Legacy Partners recognized this upfront cost when they joined the program seven years ago. She said they got involved with the specialty plates even though they expected it could take three years for them to make up this initial expense. “We decided to take that risk and we’re really glad that we did,” she related.

“It’s great to have that consistent income to help pay for the operations and maintenance,” she said. She added the plates have the additional value of advertising and highlighting the organization.

Other local organizations whose plates are on the list to be discontinued include the Whitefish Historical Society, the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation, Flathead High School Booster Club, Glacier High School Booster Club and state branches of national organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Alzheimer’s Association Montana Chapter, the American Diabetes Association and the Sierra Club.

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.