The legislature is considering a fee increase that would turn every elected Register of Deeds in the state into a sort of tax collector.

The current House budget proposal includes some $81 million in increased fees.

Increases would be levied on marriage and divorces. Fees for getting a license to run a charitable bingo game or referring a boxing match would go up. Convicted criminals would pay more for the forensic testing used to convict them.

In most cases, the new fees help pay for the program that is collecting them.
But registers of deeds would be collecting new fees that have nothing to do with their duties. The fee proposal would require the elected register of deeds in each county to collect and addtional $9 from those filing property transactions. The money would go to a state emergency management fund.

"I think everybody has gotten the idea that we see to be a logical place to try to collect money now," said Rebecca Cipriani, the Democratic Rockingham County register of deeds and the president of a state association for registers. "We are being asked to collect fees that have nothing to do with our offices and the services we provide."

In 2008 the legislature added a $10 increase to the same fee to pay for floodplain mapping. If the current proposal is adopted, the fee for the first page of deed of trust or mortgage documents would be $32.

More after the jump.

   Comments (0)