(Spirit Lake)– County Treasurers around Iowa say the administrative fees their offices collect for services they perform on behalf of the state aren’t nearly enough based on the work their offices have to do. In Dickinson County, Treasurer Kris Rowley says that’s especially the case with vehicle registrations…
“We collect quite a bit of money for the state for registrations and titles, almost $2.65 million. Our share that we keep, retain, doing that work for the state, is about $113,000. And for the state we also collect a use tax, it used to be called a use tax, now it’s a fee for new registration and that’s the five percent when people buy a new car, transfer it in to the state, and we collect about $1.7 million for the state and of that we collect for the county, or keep for the county, just $2,325. That’s the one where we only get paid a dollar no matter what the amount of the fee is, and that fee was set in 1989, so it’s very out of date. And that is why a lot of what we do in motor vehicle doesn’t cash flow for the county because the fees were set such a long time ago, 20 to 35 years ago. They’re just very, very out of date.”
Rowley says a bill introduced in the last session of the Iowa Legislature would address the matter, but she says it’s currently stalled…
“It passed the House last year. It’s to increase fees, also to allow us to open up our services to go across county for many of the things we do. It’s still alive. It got caught in the Senate so it’s in the Senate Ways and Means. We’re hoping that it’s going to be moving now that the first funnel is done. It’s safe there. They’re in a two-year assembly so it carried over from last year. But we’re just really hoping we can get the fees passed so it can increase what we get to keep for the county for the work we do on behalf of the state. Eventually we want to tackle driver’s license too because that’s not funded very well at all. It’s seven dollars per time that we do a driver’s license or a I.D., if we get fees collected for it. Some of them we do for free. So it just don’t pay for the staff that’s needed to them and the public really needs our services here, locally.”
Rowley serves as a legislative liaison for county treasurers throughout Iowa. She made her comments during today’s (Tues.) Dickinson County Board of Supervisors meeting.
