Board reports stronger-than-expected revenues but months-in-reserve slip; credit-card fees remain board responsibility

Dawn Hall, administrative services unit manager for the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists, told the board that through fiscal month 11 the board had “about $11,600,000 in total revenues,” and that revenues have exceeded the board’s full-year projection largely because of higher initial application and examination fees.

Hall said the board’s fund-condition statement has not yet been updated to reflect the full-year results and that increases in revenue will improve the overall fund balance. She added expenses have risen because of higher Attorney General and Office of Administrative Hearings costs; those increases totaled “just under $141,000,” and the board’s months in reserve fell from 1.7 to 1.6.

The board’s financial presentation emphasized the projections remain conservative. Hall said the multi-year budget projection assumes drawing full delegated budget authority and therefore shows negative reserve positions in later years unless a planned fee increase is implemented. “If we’re unable to achieve our fee increases and increase our revenues and we did expend the full budgetary authority, we would have a negative fund reserve,” Hall said, adding staff do not expect that outcome.

Board members asked for clarification about the fund projections and the composition of the expense increases. Hall said staff are preparing an updated full-year projection and expect to present final 2024–25 results in September or November.

The meeting also included an extended discussion of how licensees pay fees. One attendee asked whether the board could surcharge credit-card transactions to recover the roughly 3 percent processing fee licensees incur. Staff said more than 95 percent of renewal transactions go through the board’s Connect online system and are processed by credit card, and that the board currently does not accept ACH/bank transfers because the current vendor contract and existing system do not support them without additional development or contract changes. Staff said the board has chosen historically to absorb credit-card processing costs rather than pass them through to applicants.

Why it matters: The board’s near-term finances affect the timing and scope of any fee-regulation package and potential requests to the Department of Consumer Affairs to restore reserves. The board will receive updated full-year revenue and expense numbers later this year and continue work on a regulatory package to implement any fee adjustments.

Ending: Staff will return with updated fund-condition statements in a future meeting and said they will continue coordinating with the department on the regulatory steps needed for any fee change. No formal board action was taken on fees at this meeting.