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Franklin County auditor outlines fee changes, recording costs and records-digitization project
Summary
Auditor Jeff Beaton told commissioners the state added a $100 domestic-violence surcharge to marriage licenses and recording fees have risen; the auditor's office is carrying a multi-year scanning project and advises commissioners about accounting treatment for some internally billed services.
Auditor Jeff Beaton told the Franklin County Board of Commissioners at a budget workshop that state changes have raised the cost of routine transactions for residents and increased recording fees for many documents.
Beaton said the Legislature added a $100 surcharge on marriage licenses that funds domestic-violence grants and grant management at the state level. “The $100 that they increased … goes to the state for domestic violence grants and grants management for that process,” Beaton said. He also noted that recording fees paid when deeds and other documents are filed have risen; he cited a commonly seen first-page recording charge of $303.50.
The auditor's office gave the board a handout breaking down the recording fee and the statutory citations for each component of the charge, Beaton said, and he stressed the county keeps only a small portion of those fees. He said the office does not seek to increase fees beyond those required by law and will look for ways to reduce costs where possible.
On internal accounting, Beaton told commissioners that Finance staff adjusted how internally billed services are shown in the budget. Instead of showing some items as revenue, the county will show reductions in expense for the departments that receive those services (for example, public works, the RV park and other internal customers). Beaton gave the example that salary lines were reduced by about $132,000 after the change in presentation.
The auditor also reviewed an ongoing records digitization project that the county clerk began this year. The clerk requested $300,000 originally to scan documents held in storage; the project is ongoing and $264,049 is being carried forward into 2026, Beaton said. As of the workshop the office had spent a little over $30,000 on the project and expects to use the carried-forward funds to complete the work.
Beaton encouraged continued microfilming as part of the long-term public-records strategy and noted an archives contact at Central Washington University who can assist with format standards. He said the county’s microfilm/digitization fund carries specific object lines to pay for those activities.
The auditor's presentation included an offer to provide commissioners the spreadsheets that underlie the revenue estimates and a breakdown showing the RCW citations for each recorded-fee component. Beaton said the handout will show how much of each statutory fee the auditor retains and how much is remitted elsewhere.
Commissioners thanked the auditor and staff for a “tight running ship” and for keeping the auditor’s office budget conservative.
Ending: The auditor said he would distribute the recording-fee breakdown and the relevant RCW citations to the board; commissioners recessed the workshop to continue other budget items the next day.
