Relating to national wild turkey federation special registration plates, and making appropriations

This bill authorizes the department of transportation (DOT) to design and issue national wild turkey federation (NWTF) special registration plates. The NWTF is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of the wild turkey and the preservation of wild turkey hunters’ hunting heritage. The bill provides that the special NWTF fee for letter-number designated NWTF plates is $25.34(5), which is in addition to the special NWTF fee. The annual special NWTF fee for letter-number designated plates is $10, which is in addition to the regular annual registration fee. Similarly, the annual fee for personalized NWTF plates is $10, which is in addition to both the annual special NWTF fee and the regular annual registration fee. The fees collected by the DOT must be paid monthly to the treasurer of state and deposited in the road use tax fund. The treasurer of state must transfer monthly from the statutory allocations fund to the general fund of the state the amount of the special fees collected in the previous month for the NWTF plates. Such moneys are appropriated to the department of natural resources (DNR) to distribute in the form of grants to support wild turkey habitat conservation and hunting in Iowa. In awarding the grants, DNR must give first consideration to any state chapter of a nonprofit organization supporting wild turkey habitat conservation and improvement, and efforts to increase the number of hunters in Iowa, and similar nonprofit organizations. The bill prohibits the DOT from conditioning the issuance of NWTF plates on the receipt of any number of orders for NWTF plates. Under current law, nonprofit organizations are authorized to apply to the DOT for approval to issue a decal of the organization’s own design to be displayed on special registration plates with space reserved for an organizational decal. The nonprofit organization may charge a fee and retain any payment received for the organizational decal.34(13) sets forth the application process and certain limitations for nonprofit organizations and decal designs.