Sec 28-2455. Health sciences educational institution special plates; fund

A. If, by December 31, 2015, a person pays thirty-two thousand dollars to the department for the implementation of this section, the department shall issue health sciences educational institution special plates. The design and color of the health sciences educational institution special plates are subject to the approval of the department. The director may allow a request for health sciences educational institution special plates to be combined with a request for personalized special plates. If the director allows such a combination, the request shall be in a form prescribed by the director and is subject to the fees for the personalized special plates in addition to the fees required for health sciences educational institution special plates.

B. Of the twenty-five dollar fee required by section 28-2402 for original special plates and for renewal of special plates, eight dollars is a special plate administration fee and seventeen dollars is an annual donation.

C. The department shall deposit, pursuant to sections 35-146 and 35-147, all special plate administration fees in the state highway fund established by section 28-6991 and all donations collected pursuant to this section in the health sciences educational institution special plate fund established by subsection D of this section.

D. The health sciences educational institution special plate fund is established consisting of monies received pursuant to this section. The director shall administer the fund. The first thirty-two thousand dollars in the fund shall be reimbursed to the person that provides the thirty-two thousand dollars pursuant to subsection A of this section. Not more than ten percent of monies deposited in the fund annually shall be used for the cost of administering the fund. Monies in the fund are continuously appropriated. The director shall annually allocate monies from the fund, excluding administrative fees, to a private entity that is recognized as a nonprofit corporation under section 501(c) of the internal revenue code, that solely provides graduate and postgraduate education in the health sciences and that has an enrollment of at least three thousand full-time students. The entity receiving the monies must use the monies for academic scholarships. For the purposes of this subsection, "health sciences" includes medicine, nursing, physician assistant studies, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, biomedical sciences, podiatry, clinical psychology, cardiovascular science, nurse anesthesia, dentistry, optometry and veterinary medicine.

E. On notice from the director, the state treasurer shall invest and divest monies in the fund as provided by section 35-313, and monies earned from investment shall be credited to the fund. Monies in the fund are exempt from the provisions of section 35-190 relating to lapsing of appropriations.