A license plate for conservation education, with an osprey in its design, is currently available to Rhode Island motorists.

PROVIDENCE

The state long obsessed with license plates may soon have a whole new crop of tags to ogle.

Rhode Island’s House of Representatives, in the final weeks of its session last month, passed legislation creating seven new plates that would benefit charities associated with breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, the Plum Beach Lighthouse, the Narragansett Towers, the New England Patriots, the Boston Red Sox and even the New York Yankees.

But don’t get too excited just yet.

Before prisoners at the Adult Correctional Institutions can start churning out the new embossed aluminum designs, the Senate must also pass one version of each of the proposals, something it has thus far declined to do for most.

Senate leadership has been tight-lipped about why it hasn’t approved the new tags, and isn’t hinting whether it plans to take up the proposals when the membership reconvenes this summer.

House officials, meanwhile, are happy to explain their plate fever.

“The leadership supports these license plates because they will benefit both worthwhile charities and the State of Rhode Island,” said spokesman Larry Berman. “At the same time, license plates bring greater recognition to good causes or the organizations supported by sports fans’ favorite teams.”

Rhode Island’s license plate wars are as old as they are storied –– this is a state where drawings for “low-numbered beauties” have been known to start fights; where two brothers once battled in court over a three-digit plate that adorned their father’s Lincoln; and where the now infamous number 7 plate long ago sold for $25,000 only to resurface when Gov. Bruce Sundlun, in the final days of his administration, issued it to his wife.

In the 1990s, the state’s license-plate antics were so well publicized, one Rhode Islander wrote a book chronicling them.

These days, the local plate culture has become a bit more charitable, shall we say.

Apart from the standard issue blue wave plate and the alternate sailboat option, the state offers two charity plates, the Mr. Potato Head plate benefiting the Rhode Island Food Bank and the Osprey plate which helps both the Audubon Society and Save the Bay. Both are available for a $41.50 registration surcharge, with about half the money going to charity, and can only be ordered in batches of 900.

Additional plates benefiting WaterFire, the Reserve Officers Association, the Rotary Club and Martin Luther King Jr.-related causes have received General Assembly approval, but aren’t yet available to drivers.

That’s not even counting the nearly 40 other types of plates dolled out to certain groups of Rhode Island drivers, including veterans, firefighters and National Guard members, or the vanity plates that bear the driver’s phrase of choice, said Division of Motor Vehicles Administrator Sally Strachan.

Out of breath yet?

It might sound like overkill, but Rhode Island is not alone. Massachusetts has 16 charity plates benefiting a range of foundations from those affiliated with sports teams to one that helps the Massachusetts 911 Commission.

The perennial favorite, according to Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman Ann Dufresne, is the lighthouse themed Cape Cod & Islands plate that raises money for economic development in those areas. Red Sox and Patriots editions have their own fan base.

Dufresne said charity plates have been a boon to the nonprofit organizations they benefit. In the six years since Red Sox plates hit the road there, they’ve raised more than $3.5 million for the Jimmy Fund, a fundraising arm of Boston’s Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

But there may be a saturation point. “The more charity plates that drivers have to choose from, the more difficult it is for the charities,” Dufresne acknowledges. “They start to compete with one another, particularly in these tough economic times.”

Here in the Ocean State, Lincoln Rep. Rene Menard offered an only-in-Rhode Island solution to that problem: a bill that would allow drivers to purchase as many different plates as they wish and display them on their car on a rotating basis.

That proposal died an unceremonious death in committee last month.

DMV officials say the rules regarding Rhode Island charity plates pose another obstacle for these causes. Most organizations impose a one-time-only surcharge. Renewals are typically charged at the standard rate.

“That kind of defeats the purpose because these plates are supposed to be a stream of revenue for these groups,” said Assistant DMV Administrator Chuck Hollis.

Last month both the House and the Senate tried to rectify that situation with regards to the Osprey plate. Both passed versions of a bill that add a $10 renewal charge, a move that could lead to a potential trend.

When the General Assembly returns this summer, should the chambers agree to pass the seven pending bills, Hollis predicts the new editions may only increase the state’s decades-old plate fixation.

“I think there’s a long history with people here having an affinity and love of license plates, in part because it’s a small state,” Hollis said. “…and some of the special design plates are so beautiful that I look forward to what happens when more and more groups come out with their own designs. If it sells, it sells.” By the numbers

•1.14 million: Vehicles registered in R.I.

•$61.50: Basic registration fee (for two years)

•$7.50: Cost of standard wave plate

•$21.50: Cost of sailboat plate

•$41.50: Cost of Mr. Potato Head and Osprey plates

•40: Variations of standard plate

Plates approved

but not yet available:

•WaterFire

•Martin Luther King Jr.

•Reserve Forces

•Rotary Club

Plates pending before General

Assembly this session

•Multiple sclerosis

•Breast cancer

•Plum Beach lighthouse

•Narragansett Towers

•New England Patriots

•Boston Red Sox

•New York Yankees

cneedham@projo.com