§ 14-1-208 — Additional assessment, municipal court; remittance; disposition; annual audits.

South Carolina § 14-1-208

• Jurisdiction: South Carolina
• Title 14: COURTS
• Ch. 1: GENERAL PROVISIONS

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(A) A person who is convicted of, or pleads guilty or nolo contendere to, or forfeits bond for an offense occurring after June 30, 2008, tried in municipal court must pay an amount equal to 107.5 percent of the fine imposed as an assessment. This assessment must be paid to the municipal clerk of court and deposited with the city treasurer for remittance to the State Treasurer. The assessment is based upon that portion of the fine that is not suspended, and assessments must not be waived, reduced, or suspended. The assessment may not be imposed on convictions for violations of Sections 56-3-1970, 56-5-2510, and 56-5-2530, or another state law, municipal ordinance, or county ordinance restricting parking in a prohibited zone or in a parking place clearly designated for handicapped persons. (B) The city treasurer must remit 11.16 percent of the revenue generated by the assessment imposed in subsection (A) to the municipality to be used for the purposes set forth in subsection (D) and remit the balance of the assessment revenue to the State Treasurer on a monthly basis by the fifteenth day of each month and make reports on a form and in a manner prescribed by the State Treasurer. Assessments paid in installments must be remitted as received. (C) After deducting amounts provided pursuant to Section 14-1-210, the State Treasurer shall deposit the balance of the assessments received as follows: (1) 14.04 percent for programs established pursuant to Chapter 21 of Title 24 and the Shock Incarceration Program as provided in Article 13, Chapter 13, Title 24; (2) 13.89 percent to the Law Enforcement Training Council for training in the fields of law enforcement and criminal justice; (3) .36 percent to the Department of Public Safety to defray the cost of erecting and maintaining the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Hall of Fame. When funds collected pursuant to this item exceed the necessary costs and expenses of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Hall of Fame operation and maintenance as determined by the Department of Public Safety, the department may retain, carry forward, and expend the surplus for the purpose of defraying the costs of maintaining and operating the Hall of Fame; (4) 10.38 percent for the Office of the Attorney General, South Carolina Crime Victim Services Division, Department of Crime Victim Compensation, Victim Compensation Fund; (5) 11.53 percent to the general fund; (6) 10.56 percent to the Office of Indigent Defense for the defense of indigents; (7) .89 percent to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to be used exclusively for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts within the Office of Mental Health's addiction center facilities; (8) .54 percent to the Office of the Attorney General for a fund to provide support for counties involved in complex criminal litigation. For the purposes of this item, "complex criminal litigation" means criminal cases in which the State is seeking the death penalty and has served notice as required by law upon the defendant's counsel and the county involved has expended more than one hundred thousand dollars for a particular case in direct support of operating the court of general sessions and for prosecution-related expenses. The Attorney General shall develop guidelines for determining what expenses are reimbursable from the fund and shall approve all disbursements from the fund. Funds must be paid to a county for all expenditures authorized for reimbursement under this item except for the first one hundred thousand dollars the county expended in satisfying the requirements for reimbursement from the fund; however, money disbursed from this fund must be disbursed on a "first received, first paid" basis. When revenue in the fund reaches five hundred thousand dollars, all revenue in excess of five hundred thousand dollars must be credited to the general fund of the State. Unexpended revenue in the fund at the end of the fiscal year carries over and may be expended in the next fiscal year; (9)(a) 9.16 percent to the Department of Public Safety for the programs established pursuant to Section 56-5-2953(E); and (b) 1.31 percent to SLED for the programs established pursuant to Section 56-5-2953(E); (10) 13.61 percent to the Governor's Task Force on Litter and in the expenditure of these funds, the provisions of Chapter 35, Title 11 do not apply; (11) 13.61 percent to the Department of Juvenile Justice. The Department of Juvenile Justice must apply the funds generated by this item to offset the nonstate share of allowable costs of operating juvenile detention centers so that per diem costs charged to local governments utilizing the juvenile detention centers do not exceed twenty-five dollars a day. Notwithstanding this provision of law, the director of the department may waive, reduce, defer, or reimburse the charges paid by local governments for juvenile detention placements. The department may apply the remainder of the funds generated by this item, if any, to operational or capital expenses associated with regional evaluation centers; and (12) .12 percent to the Office of the State Treasurer to defray the administrative expenses associated with the collecting and distributing the revenue of these assessments. (D) The revenue retained by the municipality under subsection (B) must be used for the provision of services for the victims of crime including those required by law. These funds must be appropriated for the exclusive purpose of providing victim services as required by Article 15, Chapter 3, Title 16; specifically, those service requirements that are imposed on local law enforcement, local detention facilities, prosecutors, and the summary courts. First priority must be given to those victims' assistance programs which are required by Article 15, Chapter 3, Title 16 and second priority must be given to programs which expand victims' services beyond those required by Article 15, Chapter 3, Title 16. All unused funds must be carried forward from year to year and used exclusively for the provision of services for victims of crime. All unused funds must be separately identified in the governmental entity's adopted budget as funds unused and carried forward from previous years. (E) To ensure that fines and assessments imposed pursuant to this section and Section 14-1-209(A) are properly collected and remitted to the State Treasurer, the audit or compilation performed for each municipality pursuant to Section 5-7-240 must include a Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form detailing all fines and assessments collected at the court level, the amount remitted to the municipal treasurer, and the amount remitted to the State Treasurer. (1) To the extent that records are made available in the format determined pursuant to subsection (E)(4), the Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form developed by the Office of the Attorney General, South Carolina Crime Victim Services Division, must be used by all counties and municipalities to report their crime victim services funds and must include the following elements: (a) all fines collected by the clerk of court for the municipal court; (b) all assessments collected by the clerk of court for the municipal court; (c) the amount of fines retained by the municipal treasurer; (d) the amount of assessments retained by the municipal treasurer; (e) the amount of fines and assessments remitted to the State Treasurer pursuant to this section; and (f) the total funds, by source, allocated to victim services activities, how those funds were expended, and any balances carried forward. (2) For municipalities required to provide for an annual audit of financial statements pursuant to Section 5-7-240, the Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form must be included in the external auditor's report as required by generally accepted auditing standards when information accompanies the basic financial statements in auditor submitted documents. (3) For municipalities allowed to provide for a compilation of financial statements pursuant to Section 5-7-240, the Uniform Supplement Schedule Form must be included in the compilation report as supplemental information. In addition, the municipality is required to engage the external accountant to perform agreed upon procedures related to the supplemental schedule as established annually by the Office of the State Treasurer and approved by the Office of the State Auditor. (4) Within thirty days of issuance of the audited or compiled financial statement, the municipality must submit to the State Treasurer a copy of the audited or compiled financial statement and a statement of the actual cost associated with the preparation of the Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form required in this section and, if applicable, the agreed upon procedures. Upon submission to the State Treasurer, the municipality may retain and pay from the fines and assessments collected pursuant to this section the actual expense charged by the external auditor or accountant associated with the Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form required in this subsection, not to exceed two thousand dollars each year. (5) The clerk of court and municipal treasurer shall keep records of fines and assessments required to be reviewed pursuant to this subsection in the format determined by the municipal governing body and make those records available for review.

Legislative History

HISTORY: 1994 Act No. 497, Part II, SECTION 36D, eff January 1, 1995; 1995 Act No. 145, Part II, SECTION 113C, eff July 1, 1995; 1996 Act No. 458, Part II, SECTION 80A, eff upon approval (took effect June 19, 1996); 1997 Act No. 141, SECTION 6A, eff July 1, 1997; 1998 Act No. 434, SECTION 12, eff June 29, 1998; 1999 Act No. 105, SECTION 3, eff June 28, 1999; 2000 Act No. 387, Part II, SECTION 54A, eff October 1, 2000; 2000 Act No. 387, Part II, SECTION 83D, eff June 30, 2000; 2001 Act No. 107, SECTION 3, eff September 20, 2001; 2008 Act No. 283, SECTION 2, eff June 11, 2008; 2008 Act No. 335, SECTION 4, eff June 16, 2008; 2008 Act No. 353, SECTION 2, Pt 23F, eff July 1, 2009; 2017 Act No. 96 (S.289), Pt. II, SECTION 4.F, eff July 1, 2017; 2017 Act No. 96 (S.289), Pt. III, SECTION 12.C, eff July 1, 2017; 2023 Act No. 71 (S.31), SECTION 2, eff June 7, 2023. Code Commissioner's Note At the direction of the Code Commissioner, certain references in the S.C. Code to the State Department of Mental Health, South Carolina Mental Health Commission, Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, Department of Disabilities and Special Needs Commission, Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, and other related terms were changed to reflect the restructuring of these agencies into component offices under the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, pursuant to 2025 Act No. 3, SECTION 18. Effect of Amendment 2017 Act No. 96, Pt. II, SECTION 4.F, in (C)(1), substituted "Chapter 13, Title 24" for "Chapter 13 of Title 24", in (C)(4), substituted "Office of the Attorney General, South Carolina Crime Victim Services Division, Department of Crime Victim Compensation, Victim Compensation Fund" for "State Office of Victim Assistance", and in (C)(10), substituted "Chapter 35, Title 11" for "Chapter 35 of Title 11"; and in (D), substituted "Article 15, Chapter 3, Title 16" for "Article 15 of Title 16" in three places. 2017 Act No. 96, Pt. III, SECTION 12.C, in (E), substituted "Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form" for "supplementary schedule"; in (E)(1), substituted "Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form developed by the Office of the Attorney General, South Carolina Crime Victim Services Division," for "supplementary schedule", and inserted "be used by all counties and municipalities to report their crime victim services funds and must"; in (E)(2), substituted "Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form" for "supplementary schedule", and deleted "by an 'in relation to' paragraph" following "report"; and, in (E)(3), substituted "Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form" for "supplementary schedule" twice. 2023 Act No. 71, SECTION 2, rewrote (E).