(A) The Department of Motor Vehicles may issue special motor vehicle license plates to members of the Marine Corps League for private passenger motor vehicles and motorcycles registered in their names. The fee for this license plate is the fee set forth for special license plates in Section 56-3-8100. 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 cost of production and distribution of this special license plate. Any portion of the additional thirty-dollar fee not placed in the State Highway Fund by the Comptroller General must be distributed to the South Carolina Department of the Marine Corps League. 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 13; 2006 Act No. 398, Section 5, eff September 7, 2006; 2008 Act No. 347, Section 14, eff June 16, 2008; 2016 Act No. 275 (S.1258), Section 64, eff July 1, 2016.