(a) Penalty. – A person who receives two or more bills for unpaid open road tolls and who has not paid the amount due on those bills within 30 days is subject to a civil penalty of twenty-five dollars ($25.00). Only one penalty may be assessed in a six-month period.

(b) Payment. – The Authority must send a notice by first-class mail to a person who is assessed a civil penalty under this section. A person who is assessed a civil penalty must pay the unpaid toll for which the civil penalty was imposed, the amount of any processing fee due, and the civil penalty within 30 days of the date of the notice.

(c) Penalty Proceeds. – A civil penalty imposed under this section is payable to the Authority. The clear proceeds of a civil penalty imposed under this section must be credited to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund established in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115C-457.1 The guidelines used by the Office of State Budget and Management to determine an agency’s actual costs of collecting a civil penalty and the clear proceeds of the civil penalty apply to the determination of the clear proceeds of a civil penalty imposed under this section. (2008-225, s. 2; 2010-133, s. 5.)