Those “In The Black” License Plates Should Be Red - And Response (2)

In an ironic, but not unexpected twist of fate, those black license plates we see on our roads advocating reducing debt, actually had more debt (~$114,00), than income in 2023. Yep, those black license plates were in the red.

This is not surprising since our Boy Wonder Wamp was president of this organization, “the Millennial Debt Foundation,” and was paid $80,000 per year working only 15 hours per week.

It seems that County Mayor Wamp has brought this same work ethic into our county mayor’s office. Instead of being preoccupied with a second term, he should focus on working this term.

C. Mark Warren

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As I read another one of C. Mark Warren’s ongoing assaults on anything and everything about County Mayor Weston Wamp, his opinion piece did interest me as I’d seen a lot of these black plate license tags and never knew what they represented.

I did some research from the Tn.gov website and learned that this black plate sponsored by Weston Wamp’s (Millennial Debt Foundation) (36,100 plate’s sold in 2024) is the second most popular plate in 2024 as per the 2024 TN fiscal report. This plate was just behind the Gadsen “Don’t Tread On Me” plate being number one sold ( 38,738) of all specialty plates.

Upon further financial research I found that the “In The Black” license plate numbers from the TN state fiscal report.

2025 -sold so far 30,996 revenue $501,586.95
2024- 36,100 revenue $571,395.20
2023- 6,747 revenue $105,400.90
2022- 1,012 revenue $16,040.20

These above numbers reflect reported revenue since the plates inception in 2022.

As per the state of Tennessee website: Specialty plates require a $61.50 annual fee. $35 of that fee are allocated to the Tennessee Arts Commission, the plate’s respective beneficiary, and the state highway fund.

I couldn’t find anything on the Tennessee state website on profitability or potential loss from the “In The Black” license plate but I did find what seemed to be a hit piece against County Mayor Wamp that was on the Chattanooga Times.

Since I’m not and never will be a subscriber I couldn’t access the full article. I was able to read the comments in the forum that was accessible on the article about Millennial Debt Foundation and the comments were negative as expected from the Times.

Keep on digging, Mr. Warren, I’m sure Chattanoogans can’t wait to read your next opinion article about County Mayor Wamp and what you spend your time on being productive.

Arch R. Tinker

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