Mississippi has lots of license plate options, and restrictions on what you can say on them
Mississippi residents have more than 100 choices for the style of license plate for their car or truck, but that doesn’t mean every request for vanity plates or blackout plates is acceptable.
Forget about submitting anything the state deems inappropriate. It doesn’t happen often, but Mississippi rejects plates each year that a reviewer at the Department of Motor Vehicles flags.
Up to seven letters, numbers or spaces are allowed. Anything with 69 generally is rejected, along with others that suggest sexual innuendo or violence.
The guidelines are the vanity plate can’t be vulgar, sexual, violent or otherwise offensive.
The state has to review a lot of vanity plates to see if they fit the guidelines. In fiscal year 2022, Mississippi issued 111,311 vanity plates, according to the Department of Revenue annual report.
Mississippi is just rolling out its new white magnolia plates as standard issue, replacing the muddy brown plates that drivers complained about for the last five years.
Blackout plates have new rules
Some people couldn’t wait for the new plate, and switched to the blackout plates and its white letters on a black background. The plate benefits the police and firefighters death benefit fund.
This is the first year residents can get a random-number blackout plate.
“Prior to Jan. 1, 2024, blackout plates were only available as a vanity plate.,” according to the communications department at the Department of Revenue.
“Citizens now have the option of purchasing a standard issue blackout plate for an additional fee of $38.50 as an alternative to the regular state issued plate.,” the DOR said.
That’s $192.50 extra over five years to have the black plate and provide money for fallen first responders’ families.
Blackout isn’t included on the DOR website page that shows samples of available plates.
How it all works
Organizations that benefit from the specialty plates were paid $7.2 million in fiscal year 2022. The 5,400 New Orleans Saints’ license plates sold in 2022 provided an extra $235,400 to Infinity Science Center in Hancock County.
These specialty plates are available at local county tax office where the owner lives or where it is parked overnight.
Mississippi makes it challenging for residents to renew their licenses and registration.
Mississippi Department of Public Safety is in charge of licenses that can be renewed online in some counties and at offices located on the Coast and in the state.
Mississippi Department of Revenue oversee registration renewals, that also can be done online in some counties or at the local tax collector offices.
New residents have 30 days to register their vehicle in Mississippi, or face late fees and a $250 penalty.
Mississippi gives drivers 15 days after their registration expires to renew their tags. The late renewal penalty is 5% for the next 15 days, then an additional 5% beyond that.
This story was originally published January 5, 2024 at 3:03 PM.
