1. (1) Whenever the Department of Motor Vehicles suspends or revokes the license of a person under its lawful authority, the license remains suspended or revoked and must not be reinstated or renewed nor may another license be issued to that person until he also remits to the department a reinstatement fee of one hundred dollars for each suspension on his driving record that has not been reinstated. The reinstatement fee may be paid to the clerk of court or magistrate at the time of the verdict, guilty plea, or plea of nolo contendere for the offense for which the license is suspended or revoked. If the fee is paid at the time of the verdict, guilty plea, or plea of nolo contendere, the clerk or magistrate shall remit the fee to the department pursuant to the procedures set forth in Section 56-1-365(B). The director or his designee may waive or return the reinstatement fee if it is determined that the suspension or revocation is based upon a lack of notice being given to the department or other similar error.

2. (2) The fees collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles under this provision must be distributed as follows: seventy dollars must be placed by the Comptroller General into a special restricted account to be used by the Department of Motor Vehicles to defray the expenses of the Department of Motor Vehicles, and one dollar must be credited to the "Keep South Carolina Beautiful Fund" established pursuant to Section 56-3-3950. From the "Keep South Carolina Beautiful Fund", the Department of Transportation shall expend funds necessary to employ, within the Department of Transportation, a person with training in horticulture to administer a program for beautifying the rights-of-way along state highways and roads. The remainder of the fees collected pursuant to this section must be credited to the Department of Transportation State Non-Federal Aid Highway Fund as provided in the following schedule based on the actual date of receipt by the Department of Motor Vehicles:

   Fees and Penalties
   General Fund
   Department of
   Collected After
   of the State
   Transportation
   State Non-Federal Aid
   Highway Fund
   June 30, 2005
   60 percent
   40 percent
   June 30, 2006
   20 percent
   80 percent
   June 30, 2007
   0 percent
   100 percent.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 46-185.1; 1970 (56) 1911. 1990 Act No. 596, Section 1; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 1317; 1994 Act No. 497, Part II, Section 86A; 1996 Act No. 459, Section 90; 1999 Act No. 100, Part II, Section 104; 2001 Act No. 79, Section 2.D; 2005 Act No. 176, Section 8, eff June 14, 2005.

Code Commissioner's Note

Pursuant to the direction to the Code Commissioner in 2003 Act No. 51, Section 18, "department" was changed to "Department of Motor Vehicles" and "Division of Motor Vehicles" to "Department of Motor Vehicles" in subsections (1) and (2).

Effect of Amendment

The 2005 amendment, in subsection (2), in the first sentence deleted "twenty-nine dollars placed in the state general fund," following "expenses of the Department of Motor Vehicles" and added the third sentence and tables.