Vanity licenses add up to GR8 $

CANTON (AP) — Insults, boasts, suggestive messages and preaching are bringing in $13.5 million for Ohio even during an economic recession.

There are currently 401,543 Ohio vehicles with vanity plates, each at a cost of $35 a year.

Ohio drivers may spot the likes of “OTHELLO,” “VIXEN,” “U2FAT,” “YESUCAN,” and “AUTISM” sharing the roadways, according to a list of all vanity plates purchased in the last two years reviewed by The (Canton) Repository.

Arranging four to seven characters — all letters, all numerals, or a combination — into unique plate monikers makes the combination of choices seemingly endless.

Many plates are inoffensive, and can simply be bought with the extra fee. With others, the state has to balance free speech rights with a request’s potential to offend other motorists.

“We try to err on the side of balance,” said Lindsey Wayt Bohrer, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. “We try to limit profanity, but on the other side is freedom of speech.”

An agency committee meets every work morning to review the previous day’s requests from across the state. The committee has rejected 894 vanity plate applications in the last year.

A handbook contains words that bring an automatic rejection. Any requests that include profanity and sexual explicitness, or advocate lawlessness are rejected.

Committee members also have to make sure they are up on the latest sayings to make sure no drivers can sneak any requests by them. The Internet is a useful tool, and so is knowledge of pig Latin.

The following plates got through in the last two years: “ADULTOY,” “BIGRL,” “CPL4FUN,” “MEN4MEN,” “STRPTSE,” and “DRTYWHR.”

The committee also has to be creative in the way it interprets some requests.

For example, “TRYTOFU” can be read as an entreaty to try a favorite vegetarian fare, or it can be read as something else.

On the other side of the spectrum, religious plates are also popular. Plates in use include “YOJESUS,” “YNOTGOD,” “JESUS,” “LVJESUS,” “MYLORD,” “PLSPRAY,” “SAVIOR,” and “WER4GOD.”

Nearly all identical letter combinations, such as ZZZZZZZ, UUUUU or OOOO, have already been claimed by someone.