ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 3, 1996 TAG: 9610030023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DINWIDDIE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DEL. RILEY INGRAM of Hopewell is pushing for license plates that raise money to help abused children.
Few things that come across a politician's desk are win-win, but Del. Riley Ingram, R-Hopewell, thinks he has found one.
Ingram and Dinwiddie County Supervisor Mike Tickle are working together to get a new specialty license plate approved by the General Assembly.
The plate would have Virginia written in a child's print at the top. Across the bottom would be the name of the plate - Kids First, also written in a child's print. On the left would be two child's handprints, one in red, the other in green.
What's so special about the plate is that part of the money from sales would go to a special child abuse and awareness fund set up by the assembly.
``From what I see, it's an excellent bill,'' Ingram said. ``All I have to do is take it, sell it to the General Assembly and get some co-patrons.''
The idea is patterned after Indiana's Kids First license plate program.
Tickle, who was traveling through Indiana, noticed the plates on almost every vehicle he saw. ``I was at a stoplight, and I really wanted to know what these plates were. So I rolled down my window and asked this person in a Blazer. And they told me.
``This is the rage in Indiana. It's the No.1 selling plate. So when I came back, I called the state of Indiana, and in the first year [1994], they made $72,000, and it's grown and grown and grown since.''
He also asked Indiana for a copy of the legislative bill and information on the plate. After reviewing the material, Tickle took the idea to Ingram.
``The legislation is already written,'' Tickle said. ``Basically all Riley has to do is take it back and have it formatted to Virginia law.''
Although the price of the plate is up for negotiation, Ingram thinks he can get a minimum of $10 a plate to go to the child abuse awareness fund. In Indiana, $25 of the $35 for each plate goes to the fund.
With the idea still in its infancy, specifics would have to be hashed out, including how the funds would be doled out and who would do the doling.
In Indiana, the money is distributed by a nine-member governing board whose members are appointed.
All funds given out, according to Indiana law, are used to support programs that prevent child abuse and neglect, to develop educational programs and to promote public awareness.
Ingram and Tickle hope the legislation at least would include those specifics.
``It's not a giveaway program,'' Tickle said. ``It helps people who can't help themselves - children.''
``I think the big winners in this will be the kids, and I think that's what all of us want to see,'' Ingram said.
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