Utah: Legislation to Raise Firearm-Related Fees Heads to the Senate Floor

Yesterday, the Utah Senate Judiciary and Law Enforcement Committee passed Senate Bill 16 by a 5-0 vote.  The bill now goes before the full Senate for consideration.  Please contact your Senator immediately and urge him or her to OPPOSE the firearm fee increases in Senate Bill 16.

As previously reported here, Senate Bill 16, sponsored by Senator Daniel Thatcher, would raise fees across the board for many permits, licenses and programs administered and provided by the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI).  SB 16 includes a $20 fingerprint check assessment on new Concealed Firearm Permit (CFP) applicants, a 67% increase on the CFP renewal fee and a 33% increase on the state firearm-purchase background check fee.

During his bill introduction to the committee, Senator Thatcher stated that users of voluntary government services (CFP issuance, for example) should pay their way through “user fees,” that such services should not be “subsidized” by taxpayer dollars and that user fees can’t be “revenue generators.”  In testimony before the committee, NRA pointed out with astonishing irony that, in fact, the three divisions of BCI that individually and separately receive the fingerprint, CFP renewal and firearm purchase check fees were the only three revenue-generating divisions of BCI in 2017, at current fee levels, producing positive cash flow that subsidized the other core criminal justice functions of BCI.

Your NRA has worked tirelessly over the years in Utah and other states to reign in excessive fees charged for firearm-related government services and your involvement is crucial now to assist in this current effort!

Again, please contact your Senator and tell them that CFP applicants, firearm purchasers and other non-criminal justice applicants should not be subsidizing BCI’s core criminal justice functions and strongly urge him or her to OPPOSE the firearm fee increases in Senate Bill 16.