Marquette County officials warn state licensing fee increases will force local fee adjustments

Marquette County health staff warned the Board of Health on Dec. 2 that pending state rule changes will require the county to adjust local licensing fees.

Staff explained that as an agent county they must remit a percentage of the state's corresponding license fees. "For the last as long as the agent program has existed, we owe or we have owed the state 10% of their corresponding license fees," a manager said, adding the state is increasing that share on a stepped schedule that will cap at 15 percent. "This year we will owe 13% of their license fees," staff said.

Board members asked whether the county will simply raise local fees by the same percentage. Staff cautioned that the state has multiple code updates in progress and only the lodging code has been finalized; if the state adopts several significant increases at different times, local fee-setting could be complicated. "We don't want to unnecessarily raise fees for our operators if the state isn't going to double what we owe them," a staff member said.

Staff outlined the local timeline: the county must set its fee schedule in the spring to meet a licensing cycle that begins with renewals in May and the new license year in July. They said administration will work with finance and the county board to adjust fees as necessary and will seek state guidance where possible to avoid overcharging operators.

Next steps: staff will present fee proposals at upcoming meetings and work with county administration to model impacts based on which state codes are finalized before local fee-setting.