Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 | 4:13 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
September 11 - 12, 2004
Boulder City Chamber of Commerce officials want to draw more people to Hoover Dam through the sale of specialty license plates featuring Nevada's best-known landmark.
They plan to use the money they'll raise to bring tourists into Boulder City, chamber officials said.
"We need to market to the millions of people in Las Vegas," Jill Lagan, executive director of the city's Chamber of Commerce, said. "Our merchants need to have their stores filled."
The plate proposal has the full support of the Boulder City Council members, Mayor Bob Ferraro said, and several members of the Legislative Commission on Special License Plates -- which must approve the plate for it to be produced -- said they have no problem with the plan.
But it may have to compete with proposals from other groups, lawmakers on the commission said.
In creating the commission to approve the license plates, the 2003 Legislature limited the state to only 25 specialty plates, which not only commemorate an area or cause but also raise money for the cause, said Tom Jacobs, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. Currently 22 plates are already in use or have been approved for production.
That leaves only three empty slots open for new plates, Jacobs said.
Lawmakers limited the plates so that law enforcement officers would not be overburdened in being able to identify the plates, commission members said. The limit only applies to plates that raise money for a specific charity or need, and does not include the plates that raise money for veterans.
The DMV had not yet received any other applications for specialty plates, Jacobs said, but officials have heard of other proposals in development.
One of the commission members, Assemblyman Don Gustavson, R-Sun Valley, said he is only 50 signatures shy of the 1,000 he needs to file an application for a license plate to support the Second Amendment right to bear arms. The plate would raise scholarship money for children of police and firefighters killed in the line of duty, Gustavson said. Other commission members said they have heard of a plate for breast cancer survivors and one for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.
The Boulder City Chamber of Commerce already has succeeded in getting past the first step in the approval process, gathering the signatures of 1,000 motorists who said they supported the effort and would be interested in paying the fees to get the plates.
Who gets approved for a plate will "depend on who gets to first base first," said Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, the chairwoman of the Legislative Commission on Specialty License Plates.
State law allows nonprofit groups to use the sale of specialty license plates to raise money for any cause, including tourism, Chowning said.
Commission members Chowning, Gustavson and Sen. Raymond Shaffer, R-North Las Vegas, said the plates provide a great way to raise money for a charity or to provide for a specific need of a city without taxing residents.
"It's maybe an innovative, creative way to bring money to the city's coffers, and it's all the people's choice to buy the license plates or not to buy it," Chowning said, adding that she had no problem with the money going through the Chamber of Commerce instead of Boulder City's government.
Shaffer agreed, noting that improving tourism anywhere in the state "can benefit all of us."
Specialty license plates are already being used by private nonprofit organizations to support the Las Vegas centennial celebration in 2005 and the Hot August Nights annual car show in Reno, Chowning said. Other plates promote state landmarks while raising money for their preservation, such as Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake, Mount Charleston and the Las Vegas Springs Preserve.
Charlie Donohue, Lake Tahoe program director, said the lake's license plate program has brought more than $2.5 million to the Nevada Division of Lands for the preservation and restoration of the lake. He estimates that license sales and renewals will provide about $350,000 annually to upgrade the Lake Tahoe area, promote research and preserve the lake's ecosystem.
Donohue said the Hoover Dam proposal was interesting in that it would be promoting tourism in Boulder City instead of preserving the beauty and wonder of the dam. He also questioned whether people buying the plate would know where their money was going.
Both he and Chowning said that many people buy a plate just because they like the design.
Donohue said Lake Tahoe officals are working to connect the plates to the restoration work being done so that more people will want to buy the plates.
Chowning said she thought many people were buying the Las Vegas centennial plates more for their collectibility than because they wanted to support the centennial celebration. The plates are available only through 2005, and to date, have raised $855,000 for the May 2005 celebration, organizers said.
The Hoover Dam license would cost motorists $61, and the chamber would receive $30 of that. The chamber would also get $20 from every $25 license plate renewal.
Lagan said she hoped motorists and tourists would see the license plate with its picture of the dam and the initials for Boulder City and decide to visit both locations, not just the dam.
"We need to raise awareness that Boulder City is so close to the dam," she said.
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