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Bill to raise county recording fees advances after clerks, state librarian describe revenue shortfalls
Summary
Supporters told the Senate Local Government Committee that House Bill 192 would raise the first-page recording fee to $20 (and $10 per additional page) and add an inflation adjustment to help county clerks and the State Library cover the cost of indexing, scanning and preserving public records; proponents urged a do-pass recommendation but no committee vote was taken.
House Bill 192 would increase the statutory recording fee charged by county clerks and recorders and add an automatic, biannual inflation adjustment, sponsors and proponents told the Senate Local Government Committee.
Representative Julie Darling, the bill sponsor, said the bill would raise the first-page recording fee to $20 and charge $10 for each additional page. Darling said the current base fee of $5 per page dates to 1985 and that the composition of today’s $8 per-page charge includes several smaller statutory surcharges enacted over time.
"This increase will assist to offset ongoing increased costs and personnel, cost of doing business and supplies associated with recording documents," Representative Julie Darling said, asking the committee for a "do pass" on the bill and an amendment that would add $1 to the state library portion of the fee.
Broadwater County Clerk and Recorder Angie Paulsen, testifying for the Montana Association of Clerk and Recorders, described the labor and technical steps required to accept, verify, index, scan and archive recorded documents so they remain a searchable public record. Paulsen said current fee revenue no longer covers those expenses and presented a handout showing a national first-page average of $39.78.
"Recording a document is not a simple press of a button," Paulsen said, noting clerks must check legal descriptions, notarizations and cross-link new documents to earlier records before making permanent entries that serve title searches and tax allocations.
Jenny Stapp, the State Librarian, told the committee the Montana State Library relies heavily on the recordation fee and has trimmed about $1,500,000, or roughly 18% of its operating budget, because of recent declines in fee revenue tied to high interest rates and a slower housing market. Stapp said those cuts forced the library to pause GIS grant programs and delay planned infrastructure and data updates.
Remote testimony from Ravalli County Clerk and Recorder Regina Plettenberg supported the bill and the amendment, noting the fee increase allocates dollars to multiple recipients (including the state library and records-preservation funds) and that clerks and recorders worked with the State Library on the amendment’s distribution.
Committee members pressed for more precise cost accounting. Senator Trevis asked proponents to provide a breakdown of the actual per-document costs that counties face; Vice Chair Weber asked Paulsen to define the statutory "nonstandard" fee (Paulsen said documents lacking a required three-inch top margin are treated as nonstandard and carry a different charge).
The sponsor closed by reiterating that HB 192 is a user fee, not a tax, and said the measure would reduce the need for general-fund subsidies of clerks' statutory recording duties. Representative Darling requested a do-pass recommendation; the committee did not take a recorded vote during the hearing.
What’s next: The sponsor asked the committee for a recommendation; the committee hearing closed with no formal vote recorded at the conclusion of testimony.
