(A) The Department of Motor Vehicles may issue special motor vehicle license plates to owners of private passenger motor vehicles as defined in Section 56-3-630 registered in their names, which may have imprinted on the plate an emblem, a seal, logo, or other symbol of the "H. L. Hunley" submarine. The Hunley Commission shall submit to the department for its approval the emblem, seal, logo, or other symbol it desires to be used for this special license plate. The Hunley Commission may request a change in the emblem, seal, logo, or other symbol not more than once every five years. The fee for this special license plate is one hundred dollars every two years in addition to the regular motor vehicle registration fee set forth in ARTICLE 5, Chapter 3 of this title. This special license plate must be of the same size and general design of regular motor vehicle license plates. The special license plates must be issued or revalidated for a biennial period which expires twenty-four months from the month they are issued.

(B) The fees collected pursuant to this section must be distributed to the Fund to Save the Hunley created by the Hunley Commission or another nonprofit fund designated by the commission for the continued curation of the Hunley submarine. Any such fund must be administered by the Hunley Commission and may be used only for efforts to raise, restore, and preserve the Hunley submarine. Any funds collected must be deposited in an appropriate nonprofit account designated by the Hunley Commission. The distribution of these funds is sixty dollars to the Hunley Commission and forty dollars placed by the Comptroller General into the State Highway Fund as established by Section 57-11-20, to be distributed as provided in Section 11-43-167.

(C) The department shall reserve the first twelve license plates for use by the Hunley Commission.

(D) Before the department produces and distributes a license plate authorized under this section, it must receive at least 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 subsection, the department must refund the four thousand dollars once an equivalent amount of license plate fees is collected for that individual's or 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.

HISTORY: 1999 Act No. 63, Section 4; 2008 Act No. 347, Section 30, eff June 16, 2008; 2016 Act No. 275 (S.1258), Section 59, eff July 1, 2016.