H-4363              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1759

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1988 Regular Session

By Representatives Cooper, Leonard, Brooks, Sprenkle, Zellinsky and Miller

Read first time 1/25/88 and referred to Committee on Local Government.

AN ACT Relating to specifying the uses of fees paid for birth certificates suitable for display; and amending RCW 70.58.107.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  Section 3, chapter 223, Laws of 1987 and RCW 70.58.107 are each amended to read as follows:

          The department of social and health services shall charge a fee of eleven dollars for certified copies of records and for copies or information provided for research, statistical, or administrative purposes, and eight dollars for a search of the files or records when no copy is made.  The department shall prescribe by regulation fees to be paid for preparing sealed files and for opening sealed files.

          No fee may be demanded or required for furnishing certified copies of a birth, death, fetal death, marriage, divorce, annulment, or legal separation record for use in connection with a claim for compensation or pension pending before the veterans administration.

          The state department of social and health services shall keep a true and correct account of all fees received and turn the fees over to the state treasurer on a weekly basis.

          Local registrars shall charge the same fees as the state as hereinabove provided and as prescribed by department regulation, except that local registrars shall charge eleven dollars for the first copy of a death certificate and six dollars for each additional copy of the same death certificate when the additional copies are ordered at the same time as the first copy.   All such fees collected, except for three dollars of each fee for the issuance of a certified copy, shall be paid to the jurisdictional health department.

          All local registrars in cities and counties shall keep a true and correct account of all fees received under this section for the issuance of certified copies and shall turn three dollars of the fee over to the state treasurer on or before the first day of January, April, July, and October.

          Three dollars of each fee imposed for the issuance of certified copies, except for copies suitable for display issued under RCW 70.58.085, at both the state and local levels shall be held by the state treasurer in the death investigations account established by RCW 43.79.445.