The seven-year wait has ended for around 2,000 Illinois residents who placed an order for the state's monarch butterfly specialty license plate.
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias on Thursday officially rolled out the specialty plate, which pays homage to the monarch butterfly - the state insect. In 2016, lawmakers passed legislation to create a "universal" license plate to limit the number of specialty plates, which had been deemed a problem for law enforcement due to the many different designs, according to the Secretary of State's office.
The legislation called for new specialty plates to have a universal, standardized design, but include a decal on the left side depicting the cause or charity it supports. In order for a specialty plate to be produced, it had to receive a total of 2,000 $10 deposits.
The monarch plate passed that threshold in 2018, but was never produced until recently.
Funds raised from license plate sales go toward the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' Roadside Monarch Habitat Fund.
If you're interested in ordering a plate, you can do so by heading to the Secretary of State's website.
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