COLUMBUS – Ohio motorists wouldn’t be required to have a front license plate on their vehicles under a proposal being considered by a state House committee.
The House Finance Subcommittee on Transportation is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to include the proposed law change in the final version of the state transportation budget.
Rep. Alicia Reece (D-Cincinnati) has pushed for the change, saying front license plates cost taxpayers more money and serve as an excuse to pull people over.
Reece says that cost Sam DuBose his life. The black motorist was fatally shot in Cincinnati by a white university police officer who had pulled him over for a missing front plate in 2015.
Law enforcement officials argue that front plates are key tools for them. Reece also proposed to the GOP-controlled panel that the state reduce the violation of lacking a front license plate to a secondary offense – one that doesn’t give police the right to stop a motorist.
Ohio’s neighboring states, in addition to some 14 others, require only rear license plates, leading to confusion in border areas, Reece said.
She says the additional plate costs taxpayers about $1.4 million per year, citing Ohio Department of Public Safety estimates.