§463.157. Special prestige license plate; "Save the Honeybee"

            A. The secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections shall establish a special prestige motor vehicle license plate to be known as the "Save the Honeybee" plate, provided there is a minimum of one thousand applicants for such plates. These license plates shall be restricted to use on passenger cars, pickup trucks, recreational vehicles, and vans.

            B. The secretary shall design the plates, which shall be of a color and design selected jointly by the North Live Oak Elementary School of Watson, Louisiana, and the Louisiana Beekeepers Association, Incorporated, provided that it is in compliance with R.S. 47:463(A)(3).

            C. The prestige license plate shall be issued, upon application, to any citizen of Louisiana in the same manner as any other motor vehicle license plate.

            D. The department shall collect an annual royalty fee of twenty-five dollars, which shall be disbursed in accordance with Subsection E of this Section. This fee shall be in addition to the standard motor vehicle license tax imposed by Article VII, Section 5 of the Constitution of Louisiana, and a handling fee of three dollars and fifty cents for each plate to be retained by the department to offset a portion of administrative costs.

            E. The annual royalty fee shall be collected by the department and forwarded to the Louisiana Beekeepers Association, Incorporated, or its successor organization. The money received shall be used solely for financial aid for graduate and postgraduate students enrolled in a Louisiana postsecondary institution working on applied honey bee research projects at the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Louisiana Beekeepers Association, Incorporated, shall establish and disburse the funds for the scholarship program.

            F. The secretary shall adopt rules and regulations as are necessary to implement the provisions of this Section.

            Acts 2012, No. 246, §1; Acts 2022, No. 2, §1, eff. May 13, 2022.