Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jul 2002
Source: Post and Courier, The (SC)
Copyright: 2002 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:   http://www.charleston.net/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

WRONG WAY TO FUND COURT

Saving Charleston County's Drug Court may be important, but doubling the 
county's marriage license fee to $70 isn't the way to do it. Fees should 
bear some relationship to services provided. There is no relationship to 
marriage license fees and the drug court, except that the county has 
control of each. Probate Judge Irving Condon made the case to council's 
Finance Committee for maintaining the drug court, noting that there is the 
possibility of increased state support in the future. But if County Council 
agrees that the drug court is worth saving in the interim, it should look 
to some other source of funds than marriage license fees. Currently, the 
county charges $35 for a marriage license. Of that, $15 is the county fee, 
and $20 is a state fee imposed for a program to abate domestic violence. 
Presumably, there is a relationship between marriage and domestic violence, 
though we imagine the link is at least as great when two people merely live 
together without benefit of clergy. The marriage license fee in Charleston 
is less than in some other counties in South Carolina. That may serve as a 
rationale to increase the fee, but it's not a particularly good one. Fees 
should reflect actual expense; they shouldn't be viewed as a way to 
arbitrarily generate revenue. County Council should consider other options 
to raise the $140,000 that the increase would generate, and leave the 
marriage license fee alone.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom