The Chairman of the North Dakota Senate Finance and Taxation Committee is proposing what he’s calling a major study on fees charged by government agencies.
"There's many fees the state of North Dakota charges," said Sen. Dwight Cook (R-Mandan). "They probably started assessing those fees 50 years ago."
Cook said at the time, the fees were instituted to cover the costs of the service -- but those fees haven't been looked at since.
"Maybe if we looked at some of those fees, we would find it shouldn't be a fee any more," Cook said. "Maybe it should be funded from general fund dollars."
Cook said this study is just to do an in-depth evaluation of all those fees -- and decide whether to keep them, raise them or eliminate them.
Cook said such a study has never been done, to his knowledge.
"The Legislative Council did a study for me, of all the fees the state charges," Cook said. "It just blew my mind. I couldn't believe the number of fees the state levies."
Cook said fees are levied for a specific purpose.
"I always look at 911 fees," Cook said. "In my mind, that should not be a fee any more."
