GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2001
S	2
SENATE BILL 314
 Agriculture/Environment/Natural Resources Committee Substitute Adopted 7/10/01 

Short Title:	Farm Vehicle Reg. Fee Reduced.	()	
Sponsors:	     	
Referred to:	     	
March 5, 2001

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO REDUCE THE FARM VEHICLE REGISTRATION FEE TO ONE DOLLAR AND EXTEND THE RENEWAL CYCLE TO FIVE YEARS. 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 20‑88(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	The following fees are imposed on the annual registration of self-propelled property-hauling vehicles; the fees are based on the type of vehicle and its weight:

SCHEDULE OF WEIGHTS AND RATES
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All Farmer Rate Vehicles
					$1.00 per vehicle every five years

Rates Per Hundred Pound Gross Weight
General Rate
Not over 4,000 pounds	$0.46
4,001 to 9,000 pounds inclusive	.63
9,001 to 13,000 pounds inclusive	.78
13,001 to 17,000 pounds inclusive	1.06
Over 17,000 pounds	1.20
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(1)	The fee for a vehicle licensed under this subsection is one dollar ($1.00) every five years at the farmer rate and twenty-one dollars and fifty cents ($21.50) at the general rate.
(2)	The term "farmer" as used in this subsection means any person engaged in the raising and growing of farm products on a farm in North Carolina not less than 10 acres in area, and who does not engage in the business of buying products for resale.
(3)	License plates issued at the farmer rate shall be placed upon trucks and truck-tractors that are operated exclusively in the carrying or transportation of applicant's farm products, raised or produced on his farm, and farm supplies and not operated in hauling for hire.
(4)	"Farm products" means any food crop, livestock, poultry, dairy products, flower bulbs, or other nursery products and other agricultural products designed to be used for food purposes, including in the term "farm products" also cotton, tobacco, logs, bark, pulpwood, tannic acid wood and other forest products grown, produced, or processed by the farmer.
(5)	The Division shall issue necessary rules and regulations providing for the recall, transfer, exchange or cancellation of "farmer" plates, when vehicle bearing such plates shall be sold or transferred.
(5a)	Notwithstanding any other provision of this Chapter, license plates issued pursuant to this subsection at the farmer rate may be purchased for any three-month period at one fourth of the annual fee.
(6)	There shall be paid to the Division annually as of the first of January, the following fees for "wreckers" as defined under G.S. 20‑4.01(50): a wrecker fully equipped weighing 7,000 pounds or less, seventy-five dollars ($75.00); wreckers weighing in excess of 7,000 pounds shall pay one hundred forty-eight dollars ($148.00). Fees to be prorated quarterly. Provided, further, that nothing herein shall prohibit a licensed dealer from using a dealer's license plate to tow a vehicle for a customer."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2003.