Senate Bill 2961

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 25-60-5, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO INCREASE THE FEES CHARGED BY ANY COUNTY OR MUNICIPAL OFFICIAL WHO ACCEPTS DOCUMENTS FOR FILING AS PUBLIC RECORDS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. Section 25-60-5, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

25-60-5. (1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, any county or municipal official or employee who accepts documents for filing as public records shall, in addition to any other fee provided elsewhere by law, collect a fee of Three Dollars ($3.00) for each document so filed. In municipalities andcounties that collect Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00) or more per month from the filing fee, the official or employee collecting the fee shall, on or before the last day of each month, deposit the avails of Two Dollars and Fifty Cents ($2.50) of the fee into the general fund of the county or municipality, as appropriate, and remit the remainder to the State Treasurer who shall deposit it to the credit of a statewide local government records management fund which is hereby created in the State Treasury. In municipalities andcounties that collect less than Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00) per month from the filing fee, the avails of Two Dollars and Fifty Cents ($2.50) of the fee shall be remitted to the State Treasurer on a quarterly basis for deposit as provided in the previous sentence. Any monies remaining in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not lapse into the General Fund of the State Treasury. Counties and municipalities shall expend monies derived from the fee hereinabove imposed solely to support proper management of their official records in accordance with records management standards established by the Department of Archives and History. Monies in the Local Government Records Management Fund shall be expended by the Department of Archives and History, pursuant to legislative appropriation, to support the Local Government Records Office of the department and to support a local records management grant program as funds permit.

(2) The fee provided in subsection (1) of this section shall not be collected in any county until the board of supervisors, by resolution spread upon its minutes, determines that it will collect the fee.

(3) Each municipality and participating county may collect the filing fee provided for in this section on filings in any court subject to their respective jurisdiction.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2007.