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Committee hears HB 192 to raise county recording fees; state library seeks added dollar for GIS
Summary
House Bill 192, presented to a Montana legislative committee, would raise county recording fees to $20 for the first page and $10 per additional page and add an automatic inflation adjustment; proponents including county clerks and the Montana State Library testified that current revenue no longer covers costs.
Representative Julie Darling, sponsor of House Bill 192, told a legislative committee in Helena on Oct. 27 that the bill would let county clerks and recorders increase fees for recording deeds, mortgages and other documents to $20 for the first page and $10 for each additional page, and would require a biennial inflation adjustment by the Department of Revenue.
The bill also would raise the portion of the fee deposited into the record preservation fund and—by amendment discussed at the hearing—add $1 of the fee to support the Montana State Library and place that portion under the same inflationary adjustment. Darling said the proposed change is being presented on behalf of the statewide Montana Association of Clerk and Recorders.
The measure was framed by county clerks as a response to rising operational costs that the existing fee structure no longer covers. Angie Paulsen, Broadwater County Clerk and Recorder and president of the Montana Association of Clerk and Recorders, described the recording workflow to the committee and said current fees do not offset the time and staffing required to accept, time-stamp, index and preserve records. "Recording a document is not a simple press of a button," Paulsen said. She told the committee that office tasks include verifying legal descriptions, coordinating corrections with title companies, scanning documents for public access, and sending copies to the Department of Revenue.
Paulsen gave examples the bill uses to illustrate the change: a three-page warranty deed that now costs about $24 to record would cost $40 under the proposal; a roughly 15-page mortgage currently costing about $120 would cost about $160 with the increase. She also testified that the national average for a first-page recording fee is about $39.78 and that Montana's present $8 per page (as characterized in testimony) is well below that figure.
Jenny Stapp, Montana State Librarian, told the committee that revenue from the recordation fee funds the library's cadastral mapping and GIS services used statewide. Stapp said a recent decline in that revenue—attributed in testimony to high interest rates and a slowed housing market—forced the state library to cut $1.5 million, or about 18% of its operating budget in fiscal 2025, pause certain GIS grants and slow data updates. She and the library's GIS coordinator, Erin Fashoway, supported the bill and the amendment that would add the library's share to the inflation adjustment.
Ravalli County Clerk and Recorder Regina Plettenberg said counties work closely with the state library and backed the amendment because it would protect services used by counties, including support during redistricting work. Plettenberg also noted that the record preservation funds target equipment for archiving and that counties pay postage to return original documents to filers.
Committee members asked for more detail on office-level cost structures. Senator Trevis said he would welcome additional documentation on actual per-office costs and asked proponents to provide follow-up information by email. Vice Chair Weber asked for clarification on what constitutes a "nonstandard" fee; Paulsen explained it relates to statutory formatting requirements (for example, a required three-inch top margin) that affect scanning and indexing, not simply paper size.
No committee vote was taken at the conclusion of the hearing. Representative Darling closed the presentation and the committee moved to other business.
