(a) The owner of every vehicle subject to registration in Arkansas shall assess the vehicle with the county tax assessor in the county where required by law and within the time required by law.

(b)

(1) The county tax assessor and county tax collector shall provide to the Director of the Department of Finance and Administration updates to the state vehicle registration system to indicate whether or not the owner of each vehicle registered in the county has assessed the vehicle and owes no delinquent personal property taxes. The updates shall be required not later than January 1, 1999.

(2) The provisions of this section shall not apply to vehicles assessed by the Tax Division of the Arkansas Public Service Commission and registered under the provisions of the International Registration Plan, nor shall the provisions of this section apply to vehicles owned by the state, public schools, or political subdivisions of this state or any other vehicles which are not subject to annual assessment and payment of personal property taxes.

(3) The director shall provide free of charge to each county assessor and to each county collector in this state, such additional computer hardware, software, and telecommunications links as he or she deems are essential to allow the county assessors and collectors to electronically forward to the Department of Finance and Administration updates to the vehicle registration system for the purposes of adding, changing, or removing information identifying vehicles which have been assessed within the time frame required by law, and vehicles for which the owners have paid personal property taxes within the time frame required by law.

(c) There is hereby levied a new fee of two dollars and fifty cents ($2.50) for the sale of each annual license plate validation decal for a motor vehicle. This new fee shall be collected by the director at the same time the vehicle registration fees imposed by § 27-14-601 are collected. However, this new decal fee shall be accounted for separately from the registration fee. The amount shall be mandatory and is collected for the purpose of extending to vehicle owners the additional services and conveniences of the options to renew vehicle registrations by telephone, electronically, by mail, or in person without requiring applicants to submit to the director proof of assessment and payment of personal property taxes.

(d)

(1) One dollar and fifty cents ($1.50) of the amount collected by the director pursuant to subsection (c) of this section for each annual license plate validation decal shall not be deposited in the State Treasury but shall be remitted to the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.

(2) One dollar ($1.00) of the amount collected by the director pursuant to subsection (c) of this section for each annual license plate validation decal shall be deposited into the State Treasury as direct revenues to the State Central Services Fund, there to be used by the Revenue Division of the Department of Finance and Administration in supporting those activities and programs which will facilitate extending to vehicle owners the additional services and conveniences of the options to renew vehicle registrations by telephone, electronically, by mail, or in person without requiring applicants to submit to the director proof of assessment and payment of personal property taxes or proof of automobile liability insurance coverage.

(3) All amounts derived from the new fee imposed by subsection (c) of this section for the sale of annual license plate validation decals, whether held by the director or the authority, which are to be remitted to the authority shall be cash funds not subject to appropriation and shall be used and applied by the authority only as provided in § 22-3-1225. The fees charged for the annual license plate validation decal and paid to the authority pursuant to subdivision (d)(1) of this section shall not be reduced or otherwise impaired during the time that the fees are pledged by the authority to the repayment of any of the authority's bonds issued in accordance with § 22-3-1225.