(A) The Department of Motor Vehicles may issue motor vehicle license plates to members of Rotary International for private passenger motor vehicles registered in their names. The fee for this special license plate must be the regular motor vehicle license fee contained in Article 5, Chapter 3 of this title, and an additional special fee of fifty dollars which must be distributed to the Rotary District in which the purchaser's home club is located in this State. The department must report to the South Carolina Rotary District designee the district chosen as a result of the license plate issuance to which this fee must be distributed. The fee must be deposited in an account designated by each South Carolina Rotary District, and must be distributed properly by each district. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, of the fees collected for the special license plate, the Comptroller General shall place into the State Highway Fund as established by Section 57-11-20, to be distributed as provided in Section 11-43-167, an amount equal to the expenses of the Department of Motor Vehicles in producing and administering the special plate. The license plates issued pursuant to this section must conform to a design agreed to by the department and the chief executive officer of the organization.
(B) Before the Department of Motor Vehicles produces and distributes a special license plate pursuant to this section, it must receive:
(1) four hundred prepaid applications for the special license plate or a deposit of four thousand dollars from the individual or organization seeking issuance of the license plate. If a deposit of four thousand dollars is made by an individual or organization pursuant to this section, the department must refund the four thousand dollars once an equivalent amount of license plate fees is collected for that organization's license plate. If the equivalent amount is not collected within four years of the first issuance of the license plate, then the department must retain the deposit; and
(2) a plan to market the sale of the special license plate which must be approved by the department.
(C) If the department receives less than three hundred biennial applications and renewals for a particular special license plate, it shall not produce additional special license plates in that series. The department shall continue to issue special license plates of that series until the existing inventory is exhausted.
HISTORY: 1999 Act No. 63, Section 12; 2002 Act No. 354, Section 1; 2006 Act No. 398, Section 4, eff September 7, 2006; 2016 Act No. 275 (S.1258), Section 63, eff July 1, 2016.