The new year is greeting buyers of specialty license plates with changes aimed at simplifying fees and collections — although, in most cases, everyone will have to pay more.

A new law approved earlier this year by the Alabama Legislature instituted a flat fee of $50, plus a $5 issuance fee, on most specialized and personalized plates. That across-the-board figure represents an increase over the smorgasbord of fees previously established for the variety of plates covered under the changes.

“It just equalizes them all to $50,” said Cullman County Revenue Commissioner Barry Willingham. “There were a bunch of oddball fees and figures out there that the legislature had passed over the years — some were five dollars; some were thirty dollars. It was kind of all over the place. So the legislature just said, ‘Okay, everything’s going to be fifty dollars,’ with a few listed exceptions.

“So if you have a personalized tag of any kind, or a specialty tag that can be pre-numbered; the kind we can just pull off the shelf, those will be $50, plus the $5 fee at the time of issue.”

The new fee structure is slated to take effect Jan. 1. According to the state revenue office, a handful of plate types will remain exempt from the $50 fee: Helping Schools, Retired Educators, all categories of firefighter plates, rescue squad, veterans and military plates (unless otherwise authorized by law) and disability plates.

The popular God Bless America plate, which many residents have selected as an alternative to the standard-issue Alabama license plate, will not require the $50 fee.

Claiming interpretive discretion in enforcing the new law, Gov. Robert Bentley announced earlier this month that the state is not required to apply that fee for the God Bless America plates.

“The [Revenue] Department along with the Governor’s legal office has carefully reviewed the language…to determine if the God Bless America plate is a distinctive plate within the meaning of the Act,” a memo from the state revenue commissioner advises.

“…Given the statutory ambiguity, the Department along with the Governor’s office has determined that the additional $50 annual fee would not be due for the God Bless America license plate category, unless personalized…”

Motorists who elect to receive a God Bless America plate will still have to pay the $5 issuance fee for specialty plates — a fee that isn’t assessed on the standard-issue, 25-prefix Cullman County tag.

In 2014, there were 95,160 tag renewals in Cullman County, along with 5,099 new-issue tags. The revenue office also issued roughly 10,000 new car titles in 2014.

Locally, the God Bless America plate has been, by far, the most popular alternative tag. The revenue office handed out 17,982 God Bless America plates in 2014, second only to the 64,478 standard-issue plates Cullman County motorists obtained last year.

If you’re curious, University of Alabama specialty plates outnumbered Auburn University plates by more than double in Cullman County. UA fans purchased 2,489 ‘Bama plates in 2014, compared with Auburn’s 1,177.