DMV tracks down some permanent plates

It's still unclear how 314 permanent license tags were issued.

Posted 9:34 p.m. Mar 28, 2012 — Updated 9:34 p.m. Mar 28, 2012

Mark Binker

Back in February, the legislature's Program Evaluation Division issued a scathing report that said the state wasn't doing a good job keeping up with the vehicles it owned. Part of that report said the Division of Motor Vehicles may have improperly issued permanent tags to groups that didn't qualify.

There are two types of permanent tags in North Carolina: yellow and black ones that show a vehicle is owned by the state and silver and black that show the vehicle is owned by a non-state entity. The advantage of a permanent tag is the owner of a vehicle doesn't have to pay the $28 annual registration fee.

Program evaluators that found 4,218 Black and Silver plates to be incorrectly issued. But Donna Boone, Vehicle Services Administrative Officer for DMV, gave an update to the legislature today, saying that 1,065 of those plates were properly issued, according to the current statute. Of the 3,153 Black & Silver plates still questioned:

28 plates were issued to wheelchair users, according to a statute which was repealed in 1989
411 plates should have issued as state-owned black and yellow plates rather than black and silver.
2,400 plates were issued to Community Colleges. This involves a confused bit of legislative language, a DMV spokeswoman said, which needs to be clarified. Currently, it's not clear whether community colleges should have been able to obtain those plates.
314 plates could not be determined by name how they qualified for issuance

"The Committee requested DMV to submit a report addressing the problems with black and silver permanent plates and providing recommendations for issuing them. The Division plans to submit a report to the committee next week," said DMV spokeswoman Marge Howell.

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