Revenue Department to Crack Down on Handicapped Plate Abuse

The State Revenue Department starts a new program next Monday to cut down on abuse of license plates and mirror tags intended for the disabled. Everybody wanting a disabled person license plate or placard, as of Monday, August 1st, will have to have a recent statement from a doctor that he or she is disabled enough to deserve either one. Everybody. Renewal of the plates and placards is no longer automatic in Missouri. The doctor’s letter has to be less than 90 days old. And every four years after this, a new doctor’s statement will be required. The Revenue Department’s Maura Browning says the new law is intended to reduce abuse. People can get placards without having to get a license plate first. They can be issued for temporary uses. But Browning says people need to remember to always carry the pink slip that goes with the placard whenever they move it from vehicle to vehicle. The goal, she says, is to make sure that disabled people who really deserve special parking places, can have them.