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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas lawmakers scrambling to pass a flurry of bills on the final day of the Legislative session approved a measure that accidentally failed to specify the fines for driving without license plates from the transportation code, meaning drivers cited for such violations may not face punishment after the law takes effect Jan. 1.

Rep. Joe Pickett, the El Paso Democrat who sponsored the bill, sent Attorney General Greg Abbott a written request last month seeking an opinion on whether the fines of up to $200 could still be enforced. He acknowledges in his letter that the penalty language "was inadvertently left out of the bill," but contends that the penalties are implicit in the legislation and that interpreting the law otherwise could have dangerous consequences.

"There would be far reaching results for law enforcement and the general public if law enforcement had no way to identify vehicles transporting victims, drugs, and criminal suspects," Pickett wrote. Word of the omission was first reported by the Austin American Statesman.

Pickett said Wednesday that in such large pieces of legislation that go through many rewrites, "these kinds of things happen."

"It's kind of silly, if you take it in context, that there shouldn't be or wouldn't be a fine for not having a license plate," he said by phone. "I don't think people are going to deliberately drive without one because they would be calling attention to themselves."

Abbott's office received Pickett's letter Oct. 24 and has 180 days to respond. Spokesman Tom Kelley said that an opinion would be issued April 21, meeting the deadline, and that no one had asked for an expedited decision even though the law takes effect in less than two months.

Failing to display two license plates has been a misdemeanor punishable by up to $200 in fines in Texas since 1934, although drivers who correct the problem in a timely manner can pay as little as $10. The language of the original statute had not been modified until Pickett's law.

Attorneys for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles helped Pickett draft his letter to the attorney general, agency spokeswoman Kim Sue Lia Perkes said. She said that even after Jan. 1, it would still be a violation to drive without license plates, but that punishment for such citations is a matter for law enforcement or the attorney general's office.

Pickett wrote that he believes the ambiguity in enforcing license plate fines could affect the enforcement of other license plate-related offenses, including those pertaining to the use of incorrect plates, antique plates, and obstructed or falsified plates.

"When I was 16 years old, I might want to take off my plates and dare them to stop me," he joked of police. "But I don't think it will be a big deal."

The Legislature doesn't reconvene until January 2013, and should the language of the bill need to be changed before then, the governor would have to call a special session.

Gov. Rick Perry has been traveling the country campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination. A governor's office spokesman, Josh Havens, said the matter is in the attorney general's hands and there are no plans to call a special session.