A. The department shall issue a standardized special registration plate with a logo specified in Section 66-3-424 NMSA 1978 indicating that the recipient is an emergency medical technician.
B. A person shall not falsely represent that the person is an emergency medical technician if the person is, in fact, not an emergency medical technician licensed in New Mexico. The secretary shall determine what constitutes satisfactory proof.
C. A person who violates the provisions of Subsection B of this section is guilty of a penalty assessment misdemeanor.
D. A fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00), which shall be in addition to the regular motor vehicle registration fee, shall be collected by the department for the original issuance of the special registration plate for an emergency medical technician.
E. Ten dollars ($10.00) of the fee collected pursuant to Subsection D of this section shall be retained by the department and is appropriated to the department to defray the cost of making and issuing a special registration plate for emergency medical technicians.
F. The amount of the fee collected pursuant to this section less any amount distributed pursuant to Subsection E of this section shall be deposited in the motor vehicle suspense fund for distribution in accordance with Section 66-6-23 NMSA 1978.
G. The secretary shall approve the final logo design for the special registration plate for emergency medical technicians.
H. When a person holding a special registration plate ceases to be an emergency medical technician, the person shall immediately remove the plate from the vehicle and return it to the department, at which time it shall be exchanged for a regular registration plate. A person who fails to remove and return a plate as required in this subsection is guilty of a penalty assessment misdemeanor.
History: Laws 2005, ch. 344, § 1; 2018, ch. 74, § 24.
ANNOTATIONSThe 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, reduced the penalty for falsely representing oneself as an emergency medical technician to a penalty assessment misdemeanor, made it unlawful to fail to remove and return a special registration plate as required in this section, provided a penalty, and made technical changes; in Subsection C, after "guilty of a", deleted "petty" and added "penalty assessment", and after "misdemeanor", deleted "and shall be sentenced pursuant to Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978"; and in Subsection H, added "A person who fails to remove and return a plate as required in this subsection is guilty of a penalty assessment misdemeanor.".