How would you replace a smiling face?

By WAYNE WASHINGTON

wwashington@thestate.com

What would you want to see and read on a new S.C. plate?

South Carolina’s smiling faces and beautiful places, a fixture on state license plates since 1998, will soon hit the recycling bin.

State officials have designed a competition to come up with a new Palmetto State plate for 2008.

Starting next year, state law mandates that general-issue license plates be changed every six years.

“Plates do wear out,” Parks said. “They’re metal. They might rust. They need to be replaced.”

More than two-thirds of the roughly 4 million vehicles licensed in the state have regular plates, said Beth Parks, a state Department of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman. The rest carry one of the range of specialty and vanity tags.

Fees collected from vehicle owners have been set aside for the cost of producing the new plates. Old ones will be recycled.

Gov. Mark Sanford and Marcia Adams, the department director, will outline the theme and process for a license plate design contest today. The competition will be open to all South Carolinians.

License plates have been an unusual source of controversy over the years.

South Carolinians had different opinions on whether the tail of the Carolina wren depicted on the previous general-issue tag should be up or down.

That dispute gave way to another in 1998, when the state was about to replace the old bird plates.

Then-Republican Gov. David Beasley wanted to put his campaign motto — “Putting Families First” — on the plates.

That was a non-starter for Democrats.

“License tags shouldn’t be used as a place for political slogans,” said Beasley’s eventual successor, Jim Hodges.

Not all have agreed on the merit of the current plate. Some have suggested the motto should be “Beautiful Places. Smiling Faces.” (If the state weren’t beautiful, no one would be smiling, the thinking went. Or something like that.)

Others have objected to the design of the palmetto tree.

Specialty plates have been a source of controversy, too.

Residents on opposite sides of the abortion debate clashed over whether a specialty plate urging people to “Choose Life” should be offered.

The U.S. Supreme Court settled that one, declaring the plates to be unconstitutional.

Given the passion license plates seem to generate, the contest winner might need his own motto: “Gimme a break. It’s just a plate.”

Reach senior writer Wayne Washington at (803) 771-8385.