RINGGOLD, Ga. — The budget in Georgia has become so tight, several area counties are handing out temporary cardboard license plates until the state can afford to print more metal plates, local officials said.
“We’ve gone from having an inventory that would last six months or a year to not even having enough to make it through the day,” Catoosa County Tax Commissioner Sandra Self said of the tags. “Someone should have seen this coming.”
Around noon Monday, Catoosa County had only three regular passenger car plates left and two dozen empty cubbies where specialty plates normally go. Whitfield County, which handles about 400 tag or decal requests each day, ran out of tags last week and then ran out of the cardboard temporary tags.
“What would you think if you drove to a Krystal and ordered three Krystal burgers and a coke and they said they don’t have any?” Whitfield Tax Commissioner Danny Sane said. “That’s what (applicants) think of us.”
Catoosa County got a shipment of tags Monday afternoon, which should keep them supplied through the end of the week, Ms. Self said. Now the challenge is the annual renewal decals, which likely will run out this afternoon, she said.