Kootenai County commissioners approve title fee changes

COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County commissioners have approved changes to vehicle licensing title fees.

The board voted unanimously Tuesday to decrease the administrative fee per any registration from $10 to $9.50 and to set a new administrative fee for all title transactions at $8 per title.

The fee changes will take effect Oct. 1 and come at the recommendation of Kootenai County Assessor Bèla Kovacs, following the passage of House Bill 85. The bill amended an existing section of Idaho Code, specifying that the administrative fee collected for issuance of a motor vehicle title shall be the same for all title transactions.

Kovacs said county clerk Jennifer Locke also recommended the fee changes after her office performed an analysis. The fees are meant to cover operational costs that would otherwise be funded by tax revenues.

Before voting on the fees, commissioners questioned Kovacs about the language of the two-page resolution. Kovacs indicated that he had declined to make some “stylistic” changes to the resolution that were unrelated to the fees.

“I prefer to be concise,” Commissioner Leslie Duncan said. “I don’t know how much of this language is necessary to get the job done.”

“This is not a hill I would die on,” Kovacs replied.

The commissioners ultimately decided to adopt the resolution Kovacs had presented to them and leave open the possibility of amending it further in the future.

If that happens, the county will have to publicly notice another hearing on the matter.