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Proposed increases in the costs of Los Angeles County marriage licenses, civil wedding ceremonies and witness services were put on hold Tuesday, with the matter being referred back to the county clerk’s office for further review.
The county Board of Supervisors on Sept. 16 gave preliminary approval to the price increases, and it was scheduled to give final approval to the ordinance during Tuesday’s meeting. The vote was delayed, however, with the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office asking that the matter be referred back to the department for additional discussion.
Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan had proposed the increases, saying in an earlier letter to the board that the county has not substantially changed its marriage license fees since 2009, although the state added $1 to the cost in 2014. Ceremony and witness fees have not changed since 2015.
Logan argued the current fees “no longer reflect the actual costs to the RR/CC to perform these services and do not take into account inflationary factors or mandated minimum wage increases.”
Logan proposed raising the cost of a standard marriage license from the current $91 to $176. The cost of a confidential marriage license would rise from $85 to $220, while a civil wedding ceremony fee would rise from $35 to $44, and the ceremony witness fee would jump from $20 to $26.
“The proposed fee increase is significant as approximately 42% of this increase is attributed to cost-of-living adjustments for L.A. County employees since 2009, with the remainder reflecting several operational
enhancements and mandated changes that have significantly impacted workload and administrative costs,” Logan wrote in his letter to the board.
According to Logan, his office conducted a survey of marriage fees charged in San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Contra Costa, San Bernardino, San Francisco and Ventura counties. The average fee for a marriage license in those counties is $100, and $107 for a confidential license. The highest current license cost in those counties is in San Diego, which charges $129 for a standard license and $144 for a confidential one. Orange County charges the least, at $61 and $66, respectively.
The fee increases would increase the RR/CC’s annual revenue by roughly $5.1 million, according to Logan’s letter.
The increases, however, drew some protest from the wedding industry. A coalition of area wedding chapels, officiants and special notaries objected to the price hikes, suggesting they would prompt couples to instead get married in surrounding counties or even Las Vegas, “severely harming” the local industry.
“The flee factor and damaging economic impact simply hadn’t been considered,” Alan Katz, owner of the Cute Little Wedding Chapel in Long Beach and spokesman for the coalition, said in a statement.
“We’re eager to work with the clerk’s office on reform using technology and partnerships to make marriage services more efficient, fair, and accessible for all,” Katz said. “We agree some increase is inevitable, but it must be lawful, realistic, and equitable, and not a barrier for families.”
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City News Service
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