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Secretary of State outlines fee-funded operations for corporations, securities and archives; seeks classified civics outreach position
Summary
Secretary of State David Scanlon told the appropriations committee his office operates several fee-funded divisions for corporations, securities and vital records and asked to convert an assistant secretary civic/outreach role to classified status to solidify voter education work.
Secretary of State David Scanlon briefed the committee on the department's budget structure, fee-funded divisions and selected priorities.
Scanlon emphasized the department's mix of fee-based revenue streams: securities filings and broker-dealer registrations produce substantial general-fund receipts while fines retained by the securities division fund its regular operations; the corporations division is supported by LLC filing revenue; the Bridal (vital) Records Improvement Fund collects fees for birth/death/marriage certificates and funds system improvements and town reimbursements.
Scanlon said the department proposed converting an assistant secretary position working on voter outreach and civics education to classified status to make voter outreach a durable, funded activity. He described a multi-year archive digitization effort and said the archives and corporation functions have shifted to digital systems; corporate online filing volumes and the elimination of the interest-and-dividends tax have changed filing workloads in taxpayer-facing agencies.
Committee members asked about rents for annex and archives facilities and about fee schedules; Scanlon said rent amounts come from DAS and that many fee levels have not changed in a long time. He offered to provide fee histories and statutory citations on request. He also said the vital records improvement fund holds around $3 million and is used to subsidize software and local clerk systems.
Scanlon said the department has proposed modest conversions of currently temporary roles to permanent ones (principally to support corporations and ongoing outreach), and that fees and enterprise funds largely fund those operational lines. He suggested the committee could consider fee adjustments where appropriate and pointed to an administrative opportunity to deliver pocket constitutions to the public after a recent bulletin.
Scanlon also described administratively attached entities (assessing boards, current use boards) and said most changes in the governor's budget reflected internal cost reallocation rather than new general-fund demands.
