MIchigan's proposed annual registration fee

3-18-2013 Michigan:

Source: Floor Summary:

CONTENT

The bill would amend the Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA) to require a person registered under the Act to pay an annual, rather than a one-time, $50 registration fee. The bill also would provide for waiver of the fee if a person proved indigence.

Under the Act, an individual who is required to be registered and is not incarcerated must report in person to the registering authority (a law enforcement agency) where he or she lives. The registrant must report annually, semiannually, or quarterly depending on the offender. An individual who reports must pay a $50 registration fee if he or she has not already paid a fee upon original registration. The fee must be paid only once. Under the bill, an individual who reported as required under SORA instead would have to pay a $50 registration fee upon initial registration and then annually in January.

A person who claimed to be indigent would have the burden of proving indigence, by a preponderance of the evidence, to the registering authority. If the person were determined to be indigent, the annual fee would be waived until the following January. Indigence would be a defense against prosecution for nonpayment of the annual fee. If a person were denied a determination of indigence, he or she could appeal to the Department of State Police.

FISCAL IMPACT

The bill would have a significant fiscal impact on State and local funding for support of SORA, increasing the current annual restricted revenue for this purpose from approximately $160,000 in fee revenue to up to $700,000.

According to the Michigan State Police (MSP), current revenue from the one-time registration fee provides approximately $90,000 in support at the State level for operation of the database and other duties and $60,000 at the local law enforcement level. With the bill's requirement that each of the registrants pay an annual, rather than a one-time, $50 fee, the MSP would receive up to $420,000 and local units up to $280,000. The amount would most likely be less than this figure due to allowances for indigent offenders and overall enforcement success.

At the State level, it currently costs approximately $1.2 million annually to operate the registry, with $600,000 alone needed to maintain the database, clearly demonstrating that little of the operation is covered by current registration fees. Funding for the program consists of fee revenue, grants, and General Fund support. Under the bill, approximately 60% of the State's cost would be covered by restricted revenue from the proposed fees and local law enforcement agencies would receive considerably more funding to support their SORA enforcement duties.

It is not known at this time whether the MSP would use the additional funds made available under the bill to supplant existing GF/GP support for the program, initiate improvements in the operation of SORA's provisions, or do some combination of the two.