HARTFORD — Car owners in the self-proclaimed “Pizza Capital of the United States” will soon be able to obtain an official statutorily-authorized “Pizza State” license plate to proclaim their love of Connecticut pizza wherever they go.
The $28.6 billion budget bill that was working its way to passage over the weekend in the General Assembly authorizes the state Department of Motor Vehicles to issue the special license plate celebrating the state’s pizza-making tradition.
The DMV established the “Pizza State” plate that bears the image of a pepperoni pizza slice administratively in July 2025. The cost is $65.
Connecticut officially staked its claim as the “Pizza Capital of the United States” through highway welcome signs erected in 2024 as part of a marketing campaign to promote the state.
The revenue collected from the $65 fee for the new commemorative license plate will help to feed the state’s hungry. The budget bill directs to provide funding to Connecticut Foodshare, a nonprofit organization supplies a network of more than 650 community-based food banks, meals programs and mobile food pantries. This continues the existing procedure that DMV established administratively last year.
Some $15 of each fee will go to administrative costs, and the other $50 will be deposited into a newly established “Pizza State commemorative account” in DMV, according to the bill. The DMV will distribute funds in the account to Connecticut Foodshare.
The DMV commissioner may also accept private donations to the account to also give to the statewide nonprofit organization that provides millions of meals annually. In addition, the commissioner may allow people to donate $15 when renewing registration for a vehicle bearing a “Pizza State” plate.
Currently, all proceeds from the commemorative plate that DMV established administratively last year are directed to the Special Transportation Fund. Through March, nearly 1,000 of the special license plates had been issued, according to the legislature’s budget office.