Bruce Hanna wants you to buy his cupcakes

Carla Axtman

I guess this could seem like a good idea on the surface.

Yuxing Zheng, The Oregonian:

A bill introduced Wednesday in the Oregon House seeks to create a new, specialty license plate to raise money for schools.

Rep. Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, said he introduced the "Invest in the Future" license plate concept at the suggestion of a Happy Valley mother with two children in public schools. House Bill 3534 proposes a $50 surcharge on the plates.

Sources at the Oregon Department of Transportation say that based on sales of the most recent specialty plate, we can expect to see revenue of about $250k-$300k per year from this program.

The "Wine Country" plate is selling about 500 units per month. The surcharge is $30 per registration cycle. Figuring a $50 surcharge and subtracting administrative costs, that's about what we can expect.

There are some mitigating factors that can affect sales. The appearance of plate and the economy, the way that the surcharge is assessed, etc. can have an impact. So we could see a little more revenue or perhaps a little less than estimates.

So basically, Hanna is working to create 3-4 teaching jobs. Tops.

He might have just as much luck holding a statewide bake sale.

I can't decide if it's worse if he actually did the math before introducing this legislation, or if he didn't.

By Carla Axtman May 31, 2013