Tennessee Code Title 4. State Government § 4-55-104

(a) All fees imposed by the registry of election finance and the ethics commission and collected by the bureau of ethics and campaign finance, as well as all appropriations made to the bureau, shall be deposited by the state treasurer in a separate account exclusively for the bureau, and shall be used by the bureau to defray expenses necessary to administer this part; title 2, chapter 10; title 3, chapter 6; title 8, chapter 17; and title 8, chapter 50, part 5, including the payment of salaries to employees, the purchase of supplies and any other necessary expenses. Unexpended and unobligated fees remaining in this account at the end of any fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund, but shall remain available for use by the bureau. Penalties collected by the bureau shall be deposited into the state general fund.

(b) Uncollected civil penalties assessed by either the registry of election finance or the ethics commission shall be marked as “unable to be collected” and removed from the appropriate register of unpaid civil penalties, as provided by § 2-10-110(c) and § 3-6-206, upon a determination either by the office of the attorney general and reporter, by the executive director upon recommendation of a vendor retained for purposes of collecting such outstanding civil penalties, or by either the registry of election finance or the Tennessee ethics commission, as appropriate, that the uncollected civil penalties cannot reasonably be collected.

(c) If a civil penalty assessed against an individual or political campaign committee is marked as “unable to be collected” and removed from the appropriate register of unpaid civil penalties, an individual against whom such civil penalties were assessed remains ineligible to qualify for election as provided by §§ 2-10-110(c)(2), 2-10-110(f)(2) and (3), and 3-6-206(b), as applicable, and a political campaign committee against whom such civil penalties were assessed remains subject to the limitations of § 2-10-110(f)(2) until the outstanding civil penalty is paid.