Senate bill would raise price of marriage license
The price of a marriage license could go up in Nevada under a bill filed for the upcoming Legislature.
Senate Bill 14 would add $5 to the cost of the license, raising it to $60, with the revenue going to a fund that helps domestic violence victims.
The program, which serves about 65,000 people a year and has an annual budget of about $3.5 million, is funded by an existing $20 fee on marriage licenses and a $5 fee paid by those who use a civil marriage commissioner.
In recent years, the number of marriages performed in the state has dropped. But not everyone is convinced that raising the marriage license fee is the best approach to the problem of program funding.
The bill's sponsor, state Sen. Bernice Mathews, D-Reno, did not respond to requests for comment.
Nevada's county clerks will probably take a position on the legislation, said Clark County Clerk Shirley Parraguirre, who had questions about the bill.
"My first thought was, 'Why does all the domestic violence have to come out of the marriage license fee?'" she said. "Why not some of it coming out of the court fees? Because they see a lot of these cases."
The drop in marriages is also a factor.
"We're already seeing quite a decrease in the number of licenses," Parraguirre said. "We don't even think we'll reach 100,000 this year. If they increase it again, it might even cut the numbers down further."
Clark County issued almost 126,000 marriage licenses in 2004. That number has dropped steadily since then, and was 106,789 in 2007. The last time the county issued fewer than 100,000 licenses was 1994, according to statistics compiled by the Nevada Wedding Association.
Joan Bojorquez, co-owner of the Vegas Adventure Wedding Chapel, said she's working with a Reno chapel owner to push an alternate proposal: raising the fee charged by the civil marriage commissioner.
"We're just against anything that is making our clients pay more money," she said.
Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate @reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.
