MISSOULA — The Missoula Area Youth Hockey Association -- along with numerous other non-profit organizations around the state -- received word from Montana’s Motor Vehicle Division in September of 2019 that their specialty license plates were in danger of being revoked.
Nonprofits were given until Dec. 31, 2019 to have 400 of their plates on vehicles to continue offering them in the future. A total of 85 organizations ended up losing this form of revenue.
Glacier Ice Rink Executive Director Laura Henning says this adds up to an annual loss of $5,000-to-$6,000 for the Missoula Area Youth Hockey Association. She interpreted the letter as saying the nonprofit had a full year to achieve selling the 400 plate minimum.
Glacier Ice Rink’s annual budget begins in July, and Henning says the organization wasn’t given enough time to plan for how to make up for the financial loss,
“What that means is we’ll have to find ways to either cut back some of our expenses. Whether that’s staff training or marketing expenses most likely," Henning said.
"Or we have to find a way to bring in that income -- whether that’s fundraising events or sponsorships...what we don’t want to do is potentially have to raise fees a little bit to cover that," she added.
Henning received official word that their specialty plate had been revoked two days after renewing her plate.
Among the other organizations that had their plate designs revoked: Humane Society of Western Montana, the Bitterroot Humane Association, the Missoula Art Museum, the Flathead Valley Skiing Foundation and the Department of Montana Veterans of Foreign Wars.
