The current fee for recording deeds, mortgages and other documents is $10.  The money pays for about half the total cost of the County’s GIS services.  The County paid the remaining cost with money from its General Fund this year.  Next month the County Board will take up a measure to increase the fee to $15 in March.  County Board member Steve Morris says the fee increase appears to be unnecessary:

 

“We didn;t have the policy discussion a month ago, we approved a balanced budget, which means we don’t need this fee increase until next year, or we wouldn’t need it until we got into the next budget cycle,” Morris says.

 

A fee increase of five-dollars would generate roughly $150,000 in additional revenue for the GIS program.  Assistant County Administrator Scott Sorrel says the fee increase would also pay for needed technological upgrades:

 

“We have some upcoming capital purchases --computer hardware, computer software--that is specific to GIS services that has a cost associated with it,” Sorrel says.

 

Sorrel says an independent-third party did a fee study to see how much the County could charge. The Board will consider raising the fee by five-dollars in March, then another $15 at a later date.