BILL REQ. #:  H-0642.1 

Read first time 01/18/13.   Referred to Committee on Local Government.

     AN ACT Relating to equitable allocation of auditor costs; and amending RCW 36.18.010.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 36.18.010 and 2007 c 523 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     County auditors or recording officers shall collect the following fees for their official services:
     (1) For recording instruments, for the first page eight and one-half by fourteen inches or less, five dollars; for each additional page eight and one-half by fourteen inches or less, one dollar. The fee for recording multiple transactions contained in one instrument will be calculated for each transaction requiring separate indexing as required under RCW 65.04.050 as follows: The fee for each title or transaction is the same fee as the first page of any additional recorded document; the fee for additional pages is the same fee as for any additional pages for any recorded document; the fee for the additional pages may be collected only once and may not be collected for each title or transaction;
     (2) For preparing and certifying copies, for the first page eight and one-half by fourteen inches or less, three dollars; for each additional page eight and one-half by fourteen inches or less, one dollar;
     (3) For preparing noncertified copies, for each page eight and one-half by fourteen inches or less, one dollar;
     (4) For administering an oath or taking an affidavit, with or without seal, two dollars;
     (5) For issuing a marriage license, eight dollars, (this fee includes taking necessary affidavits, filing returns, indexing, and transmittal of a record of the marriage to the state registrar of vital statistics) plus an additional five dollar fee for use and support of the prevention of child abuse and neglect activities to be transmitted monthly to the state treasurer and deposited in the state general fund plus an additional ten dollar fee to be transmitted monthly to the state treasurer and deposited in the state general fund. The legislature intends to appropriate an amount at least equal to the revenue generated by this fee for the purposes of the displaced homemaker act, chapter 28B.04 RCW;
     (6) For searching records per hour, up to the actual cost as established and conspicuously posted by the auditor. The actual cost may include employee costs such as salary and benefits but may not include general and administrative overhead costs. If the auditor has not determined the actual per hour cost for searching records, the fee is eight dollars;
     (7) For recording plats, fifty cents for each lot except cemetery plats for which the charge shall be twenty-five cents per lot; also one dollar for each acknowledgment, dedication, and description: PROVIDED, That there shall be a minimum fee of twenty-five dollars per plat;
     (8) For recording of miscellaneous records not listed above, for the first page eight and one-half by fourteen inches or less, five dollars; for each additional page eight and one-half by fourteen inches or less, one dollar;
     (9) For modernization and improvement of the recording and indexing system, a surcharge as provided in RCW 36.22.170;
     (10) For recording an emergency nonstandard document as provided in RCW 65.04.047, fifty dollars, in addition to all other applicable recording fees;
     (11) For recording instruments, a two-dollar surcharge to be deposited into the Washington state heritage center account created in RCW 43.07.129;
     (12) For recording instruments, a surcharge as provided in RCW 36.22.178; and
     (13) For recording instruments, except for documents recording a birth, marriage, divorce, or death or any documents otherwise exempted from a recording fee under state law, a surcharge as provided in RCW 36.22.179.