(A) The department may issue Arts Awareness special license plates to owners of private passenger-carrying motor vehicles registered in their names to establish a special fund to be used by the South Carolina Arts Commission for the purpose of funding activities that support a thriving arts environment in South Carolina. The biennial fee for the special license plates is seventy dollars in addition to the regular motor vehicle license plate fee contained in Article 5, Chapter 3 of this title. Each special license plate must be of the same size and general design of regular motor vehicle license plates, must be imprinted with artwork to be selected through a process conducted by the South Carolina Arts Commission, and numbers as the department may determine. Each special license plate must be issued or revalidated for a biennial period which expires twenty-four months from the month the special license plate is issued.

(B) Of the fees collected pursuant to this section, 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 in producing and administering this special license plate. The remaining funds collected from the special motor vehicle license fee must be deposited in a separate fund for the South Carolina Arts Commission and be used solely to support activities that build a thriving arts environment in South Carolina.

(C) Before the department produces and distributes the Arts Awareness special license plates pursuant to this section, it must receive:

(1) four hundred or more 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 shall 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 respective license plate, the department shall retain the deposit; and

(2) a plan to market the sale of the special license plate which must be approved by the department.

(D) If the department receives less than three hundred biennial applications and renewals for this special license plate, it may not produce additional special license plates in this series. The department shall continue to issue special license plates of this series until the existing inventory is exhausted.

HISTORY: 2005 Act No. 55, Section 1, eff May 9, 2005; 2016 Act No. 275 (S.1258), Section 49, eff July 1, 2016.