AN ACT to prohibit the covering of the STate name, year sticker, or month sticker on a State license plate by a LICENSE plate frame and to direct the joint legislative transportation oversight committee and the revenue laws study committee to study the authorization of special registration plates.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 20‑63(g) reads as rewritten:
"(g)	Alteration, Disguise, or Concealment of Numbers. – Any operator of a motor vehicle who shall willfully mutilate, bend, twist, cover or cause to be covered or partially covered by any bumper, light, spare tire, tire rack, strap, or other device, or who shall paint, enamel, emboss, stamp, print, perforate, or alter or add to or cut off any part or portion of a registration plate or the figures or letters thereon, or who shall place or deposit or cause to be placed or deposited any oil, grease, or other substance upon such registration plates for the purpose of making dust adhere thereto, or who shall deface, disfigure, change, or attempt to change any letter or figure thereon, or who shall display a number plate in other than a horizontal upright position, shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor. Any operator of a motor vehicle who shall willfully cover or cause to be covered any part or portion of a registration plate or the figures or letters thereon by any device designed or intended to prevent or interfere with the taking of a clear photograph of a registration plate by a traffic control or toll collection system using cameras commits an infraction and shall be fined under G.S. 14‑3.1. Any operator of a motor vehicle who shall otherwise intentionally cover any number or registration renewal sticker on a registration plate with any material that makes the number or registration renewal sticker illegible commits an infraction and shall be fined under G.S. 14‑3.1. Any operator of a motor vehicle who covers the State name, year sticker, or month sticker on a registration plate with a license plate frame commits an infraction and shall be fined under G.S. 14‑3.1. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit the use of transparent covers that do not prevent or interfere with the taking of a clear photograph of a registration plate by a traffic control or toll collection system using cameras."
SECTION 2.  The Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee, in consultation with the Revenue Laws Study Committee, must study the authorization of special registration plates under Part 5 of Article 3 of Chapter 20 of the General Statutes and the issuance of special registration plates with a design that is not a "First in Flight" design. As part of its study, the Division of Motor Vehicles must report to the Committee the special registration plates that have been authorized but for which the Division has not received the minimum 300 applications. It is the intent of the General Assembly to repeal the authorization for a special plate that has not received at least 300 applications within two years of its authorization.
SECTION 3.  Section 1 of this act becomes effective December 1, 2009, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.  During the period from December 1, 2009, to November 30, 2010, an operator of a motor vehicle who violates this act shall be given a warning of violation only. The remainder of this act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 30th day of July, 2009.

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		 Walter H. Dalton
	 President of the Senate

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		 Joe Hackney
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

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		 Beverly E. Perdue
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2009