Current:Home > ScamsKansas unveiled a new blue and gold license plate. People hated it and now it’s back to square 1 -Wealthify
Kansas unveiled a new blue and gold license plate. People hated it and now it’s back to square 1
View
Date:2025-04-14 02:41:41
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has had enough problems with some outsiders seeing it as flyover country, so perhaps it didn’t need a new license plate that many people saw as ugly and drab.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly announced Tuesday that in response to criticism of a new navy blue and deep gold plate, she had slammed the brakes on its production — only six days after her office unveiled the design. Facing a threat that the Republican-controlled Legislature would intervene, she promised an eventual public vote on several possible designs.
The now-disfavored design, mostly gold with a navy strip across the top, navy numbers and no art. It was a sharp break with the current plate, which is pale blue with navy letters and numbers and features an embossed representation of the state seal, mostly in white. Those plates have deteriorated over the years, and many are difficult for law enforcement to read, according to the state Department of Revenue, which issues them.
Starting in March, motorists would have been required to buy a new plate for 50 cents when they renewed a vehicle’s annual registration. To avoid using the new plate, they would have had to opt for a specialized one and pay an additional $45.
Kelly initially praised the new design as promoting the state’s optimism. The bottom featured the first half of the state motto, “To the stars,” in navy blue script.
The second half of the motto is, “through difficulties,” perhaps an apt description of the opposition she would immediately face after introducing the plate, despite her administration’s professed good intentions.
Kris Kobach, the state’s Republican attorney general, tweeted that the design closely resembled a New York plate known as “Empire Gold.” A driver quoted by Fox4 television in Kansas City was reminded of the black and gold colors of the University of Missouri, once the arch-nemesis of the University of Kansas in a tame version of the states’ border fighting before and during the Civil War.
With legislators set to reconvene in January, Republicans were prepared to mandate a pause and public comment. Lawmakers earlier this year authorized spending up to $9.8 million on producing new plates, and tapping leftover federal coronavirus pandemic relief dollars to cover much of the cost.
Even a Democratic legislator responded to the new design by tweeting, “Absolutely not.” The Kansas Reflector’s opinion editor deemed it “ugly as sin” in a column under a headline calling it “slapdash and dull.”
And dull isn’t good for a state long associated in the popular mind with the drab-looking, black and white parts of the classic movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” its sometimes spectacular prairie vistas notwithstanding.
“I’ve heard you loud and clear,” Kelly said in a statement issued Tuesday by her office. “Elected officials should be responsive to their constituents.”
veryGood! (5)
Related
- Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82
- As Oil Demand Rebounds, Nations Will Need to Make Big Changes to Meet Paris Goals, Report Says
- Amazon Shoppers Love This Very Cute & Comfortable Ruffled Top for the Summer
- EPA to Send Investigators to Probe ‘Distressing’ Incidents at the Limetree Refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- Billionaire Hamish Harding's Stepson Details F--king Nightmare Situation Amid Titanic Sub Search
- Republicans Seize the ‘Major Questions Doctrine’ to Block Biden’s Climate Agenda
- This $23 Travel Cosmetics Organizer Has 37,500+ 5-Star Amazon Reviews
- McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
- Houston’s Mayor Asks EPA to Probe Contaminants at Rail Site Associated With Nearby Cancer Clusters
Ranking
- From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
- Reframing Your Commute
- Titanic Submersible Disappearance: Debris Found in Search Area
- House approves NDAA in near-party-line vote with Republican changes on social issues
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- Incursions Into Indigenous Lands Not Only Threaten Tribal Food Systems, But the Planet’s Well-Being
- ERs staffed by private equity firms aim to cut costs by hiring fewer doctors
- We're talking about the 4-day workweek — again. Is it a mirage or reality?
Recommendation
EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
Maya Hawke Details Lying to Dad Ethan Hawke the Night She Lost Her Virginity
Indian authorities accuse the BBC of tax evasion after raiding their offices
A U.S. Virgin Islands Oil Refinery Had Yet Another Accident. Residents Are Demanding Answers
In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
Air India orders a record 470 Boeing and Airbus aircrafts
Q&A: Al Gore Describes a ‘Well-Known Playbook’ That Fossil Fuel Companies Employ to Win Community Support
Don't Miss This $40 Deal on $91 Worth of MAC Cosmetics Eye Makeup