The owner of every vehicle required to be registered and licensed under the provisions of this chapter who fails to register and license the vehicle and pay the specified fees or renewal, when and as required, upon registering the vehicle shall pay to the Department of Motor Vehicles a delinquency penalty fee of ten dollars, if the owner is delinquent less than fifteen days. If the owner is delinquent by fifteen days but less than thirty days, he shall pay a delinquency penalty of twenty-five dollars. If the owner is delinquent by more than thirty days but less than ninety days, he shall pay a delinquency penalty fee of fifty dollars to the department. If the owner is delinquent by more than ninety days, he shall pay a delinquency penalty fee of seventy-five dollars to the department. However, there is no delinquency penalty fee for campers and travel trailers subject to the registration fee under § 56-3-720.

A person who drives, moves, or operates on a highway a vehicle for which a registration and license are required but have not been obtained within thirty days of the date when required is guilty of a misdemeanor.

All monies collected pursuant to this section, not to exceed the actual revenues collected in fiscal year 1999-2000, must be annually deposited to a separate account and held in reserve for the Department of Public Safety. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, these monies must be deposited to the credit of the department into a special fund in the office of the State Treasurer designated as the "Department of Public Safety Building Fund". The Department of Public Safety must use these monies and other unobligated monies for the purpose of issuing revenue bonds or for entering into a lease purchase agreement for a headquarters facility, including the renovation of existing facilities. The Department of Public Safety is authorized to initiate and direct a capital project to purchase or construct a new headquarters facility. Projects funded under this section other than for the construction or purchase of a new headquarters facility, including but not limited to, the expansion or renovation of an existing facility, must be approved by a joint resolution provided that if the Department of Public Safety employs a lease purchase agreement to build or purchase a new headquarters facility, the lease purchase agreement must be approved by the State Department of Administration or State Fiscal Accountability Authority, as appropriate. The cost of a headquarters facility must not exceed thirty million dollars unless a parking facility or garage is required.