Section 55-4-296 - Friends of Great Smoky Mountains(a) An owner or lessee of a motor vehicle who is a resident of this state, upon complying with state motor vehicle laws relating to registration and licensing of motor vehicles, and paying the regular fee applicable to the motor vehicle and the fee provided for in § 55-4-204, shall be issued a Friends of Great Smoky Mountains specialty earmarked license plate for a motor vehicle authorized by § 55-4-210(c).(b)(1) The funds produced from the sale of the Friends of Great Smoky Mountains specialty earmarked license plates shall be allocated in accordance with § 55-4-290 to the Friends of Great Smoky Mountains endowment fund established pursuant to subdivision (b)(2). Subject to subdivision (b)(3), the commissioner of finance and administration shall make disbursements of the funds on a quarterly basis to the Friends of Great Smoky Mountains, Inc. The funds shall be used exclusively for the assistance of the national park service in the care of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.(2) There is established a general fund reserve to be allocated by the general appropriations act, which shall be known as the Friends of Great Smoky Mountains endowment fund. Moneys from the fund may be expended to fund activities authorized by this section. Any revenues deposited in this reserve shall remain in the reserve until expended for purposes consistent with this section, and shall not revert to the general fund on any June 30. Any excess revenues on interest earned by the revenues shall not revert on any June 30, but shall remain available for appropriation in subsequent fiscal years. Any appropriation from this reserve shall not revert to the general fund on any June 30, but shall remain available for expenditure in subsequent fiscal years.(3) No expenditure shall be made from the fund until the combination of principal and interest reaches one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). Thereafter, the first fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in revenues produced from the sale of the plates in each fiscal year shall be added to the principal, and all revenues produced from the sale of the plates in each fiscal year in excess of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) and the earned interest of the fund shall be available for expenditures to aid in carrying out the purposes of the fund; provided, however, at such time as the principal of the fund reaches five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000), all revenues produced thereafter from the sale of the plates in each fiscal year and the earned interest of the fund shall be available for expenditures to aid in carrying out the purposes of the fund.(c) The specialty earmarked plates provided for in this section shall be designed in consultation with a representative of Friends of Great Smoky Mountains, Inc.Amended by 2018 Tenn. Acts, ch. 1023, s 49, eff. 7/1/2018.Acts 1998, ch. 783, § 1; 1998, ch. 1063, § 1; 2001, ch. 145, § 1.