By Janice Hoppes, Pondera County Clerk and Recorder
    At some point in nearly every person’s life they need a certified copy of a birth certificate or a death certificate.  
Several years ago, the State of Montana Vital Records Bureau made its database of all births and deaths occurring in Montana available to the counties allowing each county to issue certified copies from the entire state database, rather than just from the county’s records.  
    This has been a great service to the citizens throughout Montana.
    The State of Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Vital Records Bureau, is proposing an increase in the fees for records’ search and issuance of certified and informational copies of birth and death certificates.
    Under the proposed fee increases, the cost for a certified birth certificate doubles while the cost for a death certificate more than triples.  
    In the change, the counties would be required to charge more but send the majority of the increase directly to the State.  The Vital Records Bureau considers the increase to be “user fees” and stated that the increase is needed to upgrade the software used by their Bureau.  
    It is the opinion of the Montana Association of Clerks and Recorders that the Bureau should have requested monies from the legislature during the 2007 session to upgrade this system rather than establishing a “user fee”, putting collection of the same on the counties and creating a financial burden on the citizens who need the product but may very well be unable to afford the “user fee”. Upgrading and maintaining this system would be tax money well spent.
    Currently, the counties charge $3 for a certified copy of a Death Certificate and the State charges $12.  The proposed change would require County Clerks and Recorders to charge $10 and forward $7 to the State of Montana Vital Records Bureau.  The additional cost to the citizen would be $7 per certified copy.