Legislators consider eliminating archaic charges and increasing others

NASHVILLE — Tennessee’s 95 county clerks no longer will have authority to charge a $5 “bastardy” fee in legal proceedings determining the father of a child born out of wedlock.

And the 25 cent fee that clerks can levy to certify a “wolf’s scalp” would become as extinct as the last native red wolf killed in Tennessee. That, by the way, was in 1905.

Both provisions are among dozens of fees clerks say would be wiped out through an overhaul of clerk charges pending in the Tennessee General Assembly. The bill takes 96 items, consolidates them into 16 itemized fees, standardizes charges and increases costs of several.

“They’re archaic, and it’s just trying to get all this junk out,” said Tipton County, Tenn., Clerk Pam Deen, who served on a committee that worked on the proposal.

Some county clerk statutes go back to 1858.

Marie Murphy, executive director of the County Officials Association of Tennessee, which represents clerks, said the average increase in fees for clerks’ offices would be 3 percent to 5 percent.

“We tried to look at a few areas where the fee is totally insufficient to cover the costs of what the service is, which results in that work being paid by general taxpayers as opposed to whoever is getting the services,” Ms. Murphy said.

The Senate bill (SB3195) is being handled by Sen. Dewayne Bunch, R-Cleveland.

“It truly is somewhat of a cleanup bill where it’s taking some of the things off the books that they probably don’t do anymore,” said Sen. Bunch. “And it tries to modify and level the fees.”

Sen. Bunch said he took on the bill at the request of Bradley County Clerk Donna Simpson, who served on the clerks’ review panel.

Clerks charge the fees for services such as recording, copying and issuing documents, licenses and bonds.

The legislation would increase fees for handling business tax returns from $5 to $7. The last increase occurred in 1989. The increase is earmarked for new computer equipment in clerks’ offices. Transferring a business license would increase from $3.50 to $5, the first rise since 1981.

Specialty vehicle tags would carry a new $1 handling fee.

There are no fee increases for items such as marriage licenses, Ms. Murphy said.

Hamilton County Clerk Bill Knowles said the changes could provide his office, which now collects an estimated $3 million in fees, with about $185,000 in additional funds, he said.

“These offices are all fee offices and that’s how you operate them,” said Mr. Knowles, whose office handles vehicle tags and titles, driver’s license renewals, business licenses, notary public applications, pawnbroker and title pledge licenses and issues state hunting and fishing licenses.

Mr. Knowles, who took office in 1974, said he never has collected many of the fees being eliminated. For example, he said, his office has not been asked to issue a $1 license to “stand (a) stallion or jack” for stud service.

Richard Kirk, the nongame and endangered species coordinator for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, said he is unfamilar with the clerk fee for issuing a certificate for a wolf scalp.

“The last known red wolf was killed in 1905,” he said.

He noted federal officials during the 1990s reintroduced the red wolf into the Great Smoky Mountains. However, they were later moved elsewhere, he said.