At this point it’s practically scandalous.
Talking about the Indiana license plate controversy with friends, somebody brought up that the “In God We Trust” plates probably cost more to produce because of the color of the plates themselves.
Turns out, whatever reason, the speculation is fact.
Since the new “In God we trust” plates became available Jan. 1, nearly 400,000 have been requested and issued around Indiana, said Greg Cook, communications director for the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. That means more than one in four vehicles eligible for the new plates have received one, Cook said.
A new state law that passed overwhelmingly in the Indiana General Assembly last year called on the BMV to issue the new plates beginning this year and to make them available to passenger vehicles, trucks with a gross weight of 11,000 pounds or less and recreational vehicles.
The law, authored by Rep. Woody Burton, R-Greenwood, also requires that the “In God we trust” plates be offered to Hoosier motorists at no additional charge compared with the standard Indiana plate.
In fact, the BMV is absorbing a cost of $3.69 for each plate ordered, according to a report in the Gary Post-Tribune.
The money needed to cover the cost is coming out of the Indiana Highway Fund, Cook said.
So. The state’s government could spend money building and maintaining roads instead of selling them to private companies (excuse me, “leasing”), but instead Indiana will spend a chunk of that money to ensure people can buy a state-sponsored declaration of faith. And. Indiana could be charging that extra $4 to supplement any number of agencies that provide public services to the community, but instead it will supplement… government-sanctioned religious goodwill? Okay.
If given a choice between a plate that isn’t necessary and is costing the taxpayers nearly $4 bucks a pop, and a process that would allow those inclined in the state to affirm their trust in God while benefiting some social program in Indiana, which do you think they would choose? This was a perfectly legitimate opportunity to raise money for some worthy cause, and instead, it will instead go down as just another example of politicians who were happy to privilege an act of political pandering over the good of the people.
Git ‘er done, Indiana. Poorly.
Melissa is more articulately pissed off than I am, so I suggest you check it out at her new digs.
My 85 year old Hoosier grandfather - a Mennonite minister, no less - called me to rant about the horrible obscenity of the Indiana plates. He likes his church and state seperate, and no God brought to justify flag waving. He’s really angry, and fears fascism.
*practically* scandalous?
oh, WEAK.
I have got to get out of this state. Today, I got to listen to two women at work whine about how they didn’t get offered one when they renewed their plates and they just found out about them and they were just going to march right down to the DMV to tell them they had to give them one because they didn’t offer one in the first place. And then they looked scandalized when I offered that I was offered one and declined. I didn’t even bother to explain why, because it would have gone right over their bible-bouncing heads.
Keep in mind, this is coming from a self-identified Christian. Even my parents, who are very active in their church, etc., have issues with this.
I’m grabbing the title to my car out of the lock box when I get back (on Tuesday til the following Tuesday, hope you’re available???). That puppy will have communist awful liberal sodomite plastic-bag-banning douchebag California license plates on it ASAP. I am done with that shit.
The state is subsidizing these? It’s like Christmas at the ACLU this week!
Ummmm… not to say you’ll feel it’s any better… but, It doesn’t cost $4 above and beyond the normal license plate. It is only $.50 more than the normal plate.
And… as an alternative to the god-awful plate they currently offer (and 2008’s plates aren’t getting much better)… the new plate looks good.
If I’m offered two items for the same price… and, one looks better than the other… I think it’s a no brainer. Why don’t they just make a more attractive plate to compete? They pride themselves in ugliness.
I personally miss the Kentucky “It’s that Friendly” plate… :-D
http://www.15q.net/us2/ky04.jpg
I am so tired of having to conform to the non-religious beliefs! Where is the right of the people who believe in and want to their faith in God ? The seperation of Church and State is a bunch of BS! I have the right to choose to believe and I am tired of being bullied by the small activous. Way to go GOD! I want the right to keep the plate and not be bullied to remove it!
Indiana Girl. It has nothing to do with your right to show your support for religion or any other organization for that matter. The issue is that that particular plate is doing so on EVERYONE’S tax dollar. If you want that plate you should have to pay the administrative fees associated with specialty plates just like everyone else. It isn’t a standard plate regardless of the state trying to tout it as such. If it were a standard plate it would have been voted on by popular vote like all standard Indiana plates.
Having just arrived for a one-week visit, I was appalled to see the “In God We Trust” license plates. It brought in relief just how crazy it is that for 160 years, our money has carried the same slogan.
Only it’s much more personal with a plate. Must we now have government causing us to report to the world as we drive around whether we are in the inner group of true believers or with the outcasts who 1) don’t believe or 2) believe in Allah, Shiva or Buddha instead or 3) don’t think that announcing your private values to the world should be the price that government puts on our merely owning a vehicle.