City clerk requests vital-records fee hike

The city of Watertown is asking that home-rule legislation be adopted by the state Legislature allowing the city clerk's office to increase the price it charges for certified copies of vital records including birth, death and marriage certificates.

The City Council informally gave staff the nod to move forward with the request Monday night; the measure is expected to be approved later this month. The city now charges $10 to reproduce the documents. Doubling the fee to $20, as proposed by Clerk Donna M. Dutton, would raise an additional $60,000, she said.

Copies of these documents can be found in the municipality where the person was born, died or was married. The villages of Carthage, Lowville and Potsdam all charge $10 for the records.

While council members were noncommittal about doubling the charge, they did say the fee should be increased.

"It is a conscious effort on the part of myself and staff to look for areas where we can increase revenues," City Manager Mary M. Corriveau said. "And it's not just increasing revenues for the sake of pulling dollars in. We haven't kept with the times in the way we charge for services."

The city has not revised the amount it charges for the records since 1991, according to information provided to the council from Mrs. Dutton.

"To increase the fee, it will require home rule action by council beginning the process with a resolution requesting the change and asking our state legislative representatives to prepare the legislation," the clerk wrote in a memo to the council.

The city began to feel the pinch of the weakened national economy in 2008 when sales tax revenue, the city's largest single source of income, began to fall short of projections.

To help close the gap between spending and its available funds, the city passed a number of fee increases last summer for things like bus fares, parking tickets and building permits. The increases were expected to raise an additional $141,000. Whether the city is on pace to meet that projection was unavailable Wednesday.

The city expects to collect about $1.3 million in revenue during the current fiscal year, $110,800 of that coming from the clerk's office.

The council also is expected to approve a resolution charging $5 for paternity acknowledgments. There currently is no charge for the service. The cost for a sheet of wedding photos also may increase, from $10 to $15.

All told, Mrs. Dutton predicted the increases could raise an additional $70,000 for the city.

THE COST OF RECORDS

The price for vital records varies throughout the state:

■ City of Oswego: $15

/ City of Rochester: $30

/ City of Buffalo: $30

/ Onondaga County: $35; additional copies are $30

/ Monroe County: $30

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY WATERTOWN CITY CLERK'S OFFICE