West Virginia Honorary Military License Plates

West Virginia Code 17A-3-14d authorizes special honorary military plates and, in one sentence, makes them free to run: "Registration plates issued pursuant to this section are exempt from all registration fees otherwise required by the provisions of this chapter." The categories are disabled veterans, recipients of the Purple Heart, recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, and the Air Force Cross, and veteran survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This is the distinction that decides what you pay, and the two plate sections sit next to each other in the Code. The ordinary veteran plate under 17A-3-14b is available to any active, retired, or honorably discharged member and costs a $10 initial application fee on top of all other fees, including the regular registration fee. The honorary plates under 17A-3-14d are exempt from registration fees altogether. A veteran who qualifies for an honorary plate should not be buying the ordinary one. The surviving spouse provision is generous and worth acting on before it is needed. A surviving spouse may continue to use the license plate of a deceased spouse issued under this section until the surviving spouse dies, remarries, or does not renew the plate. Note the third condition: letting the registration lapse ends the entitlement, and it cannot be picked back up. A surviving spouse who wants to keep the plate must keep renewing it without a gap. Two things this plate does beyond identifying the vehicle. It is the credential for free metered parking. West Virginia Code 17A-3-15a lets a disabled veteran or a Purple Heart recipient park at any metered space in any municipality in the state without paying, but requires that an appropriate designation appear on the person's registration plate. Without the plate there is no parking benefit, which has its own entry here. It is distinct from the registration fee exemption in 17A-10-8. The two overlap but are not the same list: 17A-10-8 reaches former prisoners of war and Medal of Honor recipients and vehicle grant recipients, while 17A-3-14d reaches Purple Heart recipients, the service crosses, and Pearl Harbor survivors. A veteran may qualify under one and not the other, so check both. Section 17A-3-14d does not itself define "disabled veteran" with a percentage, and the Department of Veterans Assistance describes disabled veteran tags as being for veterans who qualify for federal vehicle grant benefits or who hold a one hundred percent permanent and total rating. Apply through the Division of Motor Vehicles with a state benefits office handling the certification.