More Buffoonery?

Within the past year I have twice heard “but we have to make a
profit” when the County Clerk’s office was asked for copies of
documents registering business names. Last year the charge was
$10, this year it has gone up to $15. Multiple copies drop to $5
each. There was an article on the cover page of the Iron County
Reporter for January 2, 2013, about this topic. The headline says,
“County increases cost for copies of vital records.”

A little further in this article we’ll count the number of things that
are wrong between the “fee” and the discussions. The article goes
on to say,“Increases in supply costs have prompted the Iron
County Board of Commissioners to raise the price for copies of
vital records.”

Really?

Joan Luhtanen is quoted as stating that the adjustment to the
“fee” is a “financial necessity.” Also mentioned is that it has been
a number of years since the fee was last increased. That, in this
editor’s opinion, is the only real reason for the most recent
increase.

But what we need to look at is the basis for anything called a
“fee” by local government because that’s where our politicians
have found a place to cheat by overcharging. Interestingly enough,
overcharges land in a general coffer rather than being used solely
to pay local government the actual costs for the service being
provided. There’s no other place for that excess money to go.

Let’s analyze this little process. State law requires the county
clerk to maintain vital records. All the costs associated with
procuring, recording, and maintaining vital records are covered
in the budget allocated by the county to its clerk. That’s materials,
payroll, and secure infrastructure. So far, any request for copies
doesn’t implicate immediate costs, or any “increase in supply
costs.”

I just checked on the price of copy paper. It costs less than
$ 0.01 per standard 8.5 X 11 inch sheet. Walking into any
business that sells copying to the public, the cost of a single
copy is well under a dollar in all cases. Office Max copy
centers get just 10 cents per copy for small quantities with an
employee, costing them money, handling the originals. So paper
and copier costs can’t be the source of costs that increased
the current price of the first copy from Iron County by $5.

But vital records copies must be certified by the county clerk’s
office. That means that someone, certified by the state as a
notary public, has to take the time to stamp, seal, and sign the
document. Yes, and all those costs are already covered in
the clerk’s office budget paid through our taxes to Iron
County, Michigan.

Thus the real costs, not already paid for by the residents
and business of Iron County are the use of a copy machine
and the cost of less that 1 cent in paper, and fairly 10 cents
per commercial copy. That’s a far cry from $15 for the first
copy, let alone $5 for subsequent copies.

Having thus established that the actual uncovered cost to
the county clerk’s office is, at most a few pennies, we next
look to what the courts have had to say on this topic. We
really need to go no further than the case of Mapleview Estates
vs. Brown City[1] in 2003, where the court restated what had
already been established, “A `fee for service' or `user fee' is a
payment made for the voluntary receipt of a measured service,
in which the revenue from the fees are [sic] used only for the
service provided.” And very simply, any “fee” not included in
the definition is a (ta da!!!!) tax that must comport, in its
imposition, to the Headlee Amendment of the Michigan
Constitution.

The Headlee Amendment requires that any new tax or increase
in (that didn’t exist prior to adoption of the Headlee Amendment)
any tax imposed by local government must first be submitted to
all qualified electors for approval.

Should this tax ever be submitted to a court, it is likely that the
“fee” for copies of vital records will be rolled back to the amount
it was prior to November of 1978. And I’d be willing to wager
that even at those rates, whatever they were, the county clerk’s
office would still experience a profit of some sort.

So which is it? Did the outgoing county board not know, or not
care, about their complicity in violating the law and their oath of
office? Was it the simple consequence of mere buffoonery, or
was it more sinister than that? It  was the outgoing board in 2012
that authorized the increase. Is the current board smart enough to
correct this issue without being sued?

And is our Iron County Clerk smart enough to stop charging the
high fee for documents not authorized by ordinance, and charge
only the fee for ordinary business copies?

Bill Vajk

[1] Mapleview Estates, Inc. v. Brown City, 671 NW 2d 572,575
Mich: Court of Appeals 2003