OPR officials tell board funding model study underway after board fund ended FY24 about $103,000 in deficit

Office of Professional Regulation (OPR) staff told the Board of Land Surveyors that the board's fund ended fiscal year 2024 approximately $103,000 in the red and outlined a two-year funding-structure study intended to make cost allocation more direct and equitable.

Dylan Bruce, research and policy manager at OPR, said "at the end of fiscal year 24, the board was looking at right around a $103,000 in the red." He reviewed the FY24 expense breakdown for the board: roughly $6,000 in board-direct expenses (per diems and related items), about $9,500 in enforcement-related costs, roughly $13,000 charged to the board as its share of OPR indirect costs, and about $16,000 charged as a portion of Secretary of State expenses, for an overall board cost of just under $40,000 for that fiscal year.

Tara Grenier, deputy director at OPR, said the funding-structure study was requested by the legislature (Act 158) and seeks to collect two years of time-sheet data so staff time and enforcement resources can be charged more directly to the professions that use them. "We are keeping track of the time that we spend by profession," Grenier said. She told the board that 67% of OPR's total expenses are staff compensation and that current indirect allocation models average costs across professions rather than charging boards for the actual staff time and enforcement resources they consume.

OPR staff described several possible near-term fee proposals being considered in an OPR bill the legislature will review; staff emphasized these are proposals subject to the legislature. Examples discussed included fees for apprentice applications, a fee for specialty applications, maintaining (but not refunding) a $25 second-chance determination fee, and raising official license verification fees from $20 to $30. Tara described the policy intent as aligning fee revenues with services provided while seeking data to make transparent recommendations.

Board members asked whether fines from disciplinary actions are returned to boards; staff said fines do not go to individual boards and are instead deposited to broader agency or state funds. Dylan added that historically such receipts were earmarked for training or travel but are currently used in the agency-wide budget.

OPR staff said the funding-structure study will take time to collect and analyze two years of time-sheet data and that changes to allocation models would be subject to legislative review and decision. No fee changes were adopted at the meeting; staff said OPR is pausing fee proposals pending the study's findings and implied follow-up at future meetings.