Registration Fee Bill is DEAD
HB 1179/SB 1657 which authorized Sheriffs to charge a “registration fee” for the privilege of registering as a sex offender is dead.
The bills died in the Criminal Justice Subcommittees.
According to the published Bill analysis, “Currently, six sheriffs’ offices reported that they require offenders to pay for registration or re-registration and the other 61 do not require payments. For an initial registration, the costs ranged from $30 to $75 dollars and for re-registration, the costs ranged from $10 to $25 dollars. Some agencies also reported a $10 fee for simple information updates.”
Based on the fiscal analysis, it kinda looks like the Bill would have been a wash…
Revenues:
The bill authorizes the sheriff to impose registration fees on specified offenders that are required to register. To the extent that sheriff’s utilize this provision, the bill will result in a positive fiscal impact of local government revenues.
Expenditures:
As noted above, the bill creates a new second degree misdemeanor for failure to pay registration fees. To the extent that a person is arrested, booked in the jail, and/or sentenced to jail time for failure to pay applicable registration fees, the bill could result in a negative jail bed impact on local governments.
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Senate appropriations and budget committee’s would never approve plus new laws about lea not allowed to have quotas apply here. Of course you missed a payment, felony for non compliance would never fly.
So why do some counties still charge and get away with it? ( Duval )
The bill would create a state statute. As we know from residency restrictions, the individual counties can expand on the state rules.
Where the state has a 1000 foot SORR, some counties and cities expand theirs to 2500. While the state provides no statute to charge registrants a fee, some counties do.
What most other states have found is that the population is, for the most part, broke. To pursue someone for failing to pay a $100 fee they would have to arrest (police time), prosecute (state attorney time) and then punish (jail time) the registrant. It makes economic sense to forego the hundred bucks than to spend several thousands pursuing it. It’s not like they can charge them a penalty for failing to pay a fee… if they don’t have the $100 they certainly won’t have $500.
Thank you FAC. Albeit, the bill died in committee, I still extend a thank you for all your hard work on our behalf.
Good news for once. Yeh!!! Noe just to do a major overhaul of the system.