RMV Low Number Plate Lottery 2023

BOSTON —The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) applications for the 2023 Low Number Plate Lottery are available online at myRMV Online Service Center.

To be eligible, applicants must apply for this year's lottery by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 31, 2023. Winners will be notified by mail if selected for a low number plate. 

This year, there are 191 plates available through the low plate lottery. Some of the available low plates include 13F, 17V, 28E, Z64, 301, 1999, 4004, 4400, and 8511.

Applicants should note that there is no fee to apply for the lottery. However, should the applicant be selected as a winner, there is a special plate fee that will be required, as well as a standard registration fee. 

Customers are encouraged to visit the RMV's website or follow @MassRMV on Twitter for details on the lottery plate drawing to be announced later this summer, including the date, time, and location of the event. In addition, lottery plate applicants will be sent a notification from the RMV to the email address they provided with lottery event details. The lottery results will be posted after the drawing on the RMV website. 

Lottery Rules and Eligibility Requirements

• Only one entry per applicant will be accepted, regardless of the number of active registrations the applicant has. 
• An applicant must be a Massachusetts resident with a currently active, registered, and insured passenger vehicle. 
• Companies/corporations may not apply. 
• MassDOT (Registry of Motor Vehicles, Highway, Mass Transit, and Aeronautics) employees, including contract employees, and their immediate family members are not eligible. (“Immediate family member” refers to one's parents, spouse, children, and brothers & sisters.) 
• Requests for specific plate numbers will not be honored. Eligible applicants will be considered for all plates listed. Plates will be awarded in the order in which they are listed on Mass.Gov/RMV. 
• An applicant's registration and license cannot be in a non-renewal, suspended, or revoked status at the time of entry, the time of the drawing, or the time of the plate swap. As such, an applicant must not have any outstanding excise taxes, parking tickets, child support, warrants, or unpaid E-Z Pass/Pay by Plate violations. 
• Online entries will be accepted only and must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 31, 2023.
• Lottery results will be available on the RMV website: Mass.Gov/RMV. By law, lottery winners must be announced by Friday, September 15, 2023.
• All winners will be notified by mail with instructions on how to transfer their current registration to their new lottery plate. Winners will have until Friday, December 29, 2023, to swap their plates.
• Unclaimed plates will be forfeited and awarded to alternate winners after Friday, December 29, 2023.
• Plates will be registered to the winning applicant only. All plates remain the property of the RMV even after registration. 
• All information received, including names of all applicants and the list of winners, is subject to release in accordance with the Massachusetts Public Records Law.

Pittsfield Council Gives Preliminary OK to $82M School Budget

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
12:31PM / Thursday, May 23, 2024

State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, with Superintendent Joseph Curtis, says the Student Opportunity Act if fully funded this year. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council left no stone unturned as it took four hours to preliminarily approve the school budget on Monday. At $82,885,277, the fiscal year 2025 spending plan is a $4,797,262 — or 6.14 percent — increase from this year.

It was a divisive vote, passing 6-4 with one councilor absent, and survived two proposals for significant cuts.  

"I think we have fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of Pittsfield and to have a budget that is responsible, taking into consideration the huge increase in taxes that it had the last couple of years, the last year in particular," said Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, a former School Committee chair, who unsuccessfully motioned for a $730,000 reduction.

Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren responded with a motion for a $250,000 cut, which failed 5-5.  

The Pittsfield Public School budget is balanced by $1.5 million in cuts and includes about 50 full-time equivalent reductions in staff — about 40 due to the sunsetting of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds. With 27 FTE staff additions, there is a net reduction of nearly 23 FTEs.

This plan does not come close to meeting the needs that were expressed throughout the seven-month budget process, Superintendent Joseph Curtis explained, but was brought forward in partnership with all city departments recognizing that each must make sacrifices in financial stewardship.

"With humility, I address the council tonight firmly believing that the budget we unveiled was crafted admits very difficult decisions, struggles, along with some transformative changes," he said.

"It is still important though that it did not even come close to accommodating the urgent requests we received throughout the entire budget process."