Number 1 Bus Registration Plate Needs Law Change

Thursday’s Globe described an effort by Biff Michaud of Marblehead to hold onto a bus number plate bearing the number 1 — a plate granted by Governor John Volpe in 1966 to Michaud’s now-deceased father.

The Registry of Motor Vehicles suspended the number plate last year after learning that Michaud wasn’t keeping it on a bus; instead, it’s on his Cadillac Escalade. But now state Representative John Keenan is sponsoring legislation, which has already passed the House, that would give Michaud the right to keep Bus 1 on any vehicle he likes.

The Legislature’s willingness to bend laws on a case-by-case basis has hurt the public interest. Every year, lawmakers are asked to pass bills that expand pension benefits for specific individuals, or for small groups of people. These bills raise public expenditures — but any legislator who votes against them ends up looking stingy or churlish. While the Bus 1 bill doesn’t carry a cost, it bends the law for one person’s benefit.