Proposed increases in the cost of Los Angeles County marriage licenses, civil wedding ceremonies and witness services were put on hold Tuesday, with the case referred back to the County Clerk’s office for further review.
The County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 16 gave preliminary approval to the price increases and was scheduled to give final approval to the ordinance at Tuesday’s meeting. However, the vote was postponed, with the office of the Registrar-Recorder/Provincial Clerk requesting that the matter be referred to the department for additional discussion.
Registrar-Recorder/County Registrar Dean Logan had proposed the increases, saying in an earlier letter to the board that the county has not significantly changed its marriage license since 2009, although the state added $1 to the fee in 2014. Ceremony and witness fees have not changed since 2015.
Logan argued that the current fees “no longer reflect the actual costs to the RR/CC to perform these services and do not take into account inflationary factors or mandatory minimum wage increases.” ”
Logan proposed increasing the cost of a standard marriage license from the current $91 to $176. The cost of a confidential marriage license would increase from $85 to $220, while a civil wedding ceremony fee would increase from $35 to $44, and the ceremony-witness fee would increase from $20 to $26.
“The proposed increase in benefits is significant as approximately 42% of this increase since 2009 is attributed to cost-of-living adjustments for LA County employees, with the remainder reflecting various operational
Improvements and mandatory changes that have significantly impacted workload and administrative costs,” Logan wrote in his letter to the board.
According to Logan, his office conducted a review of wedding fees charged in San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Contra Costa, San Bernardino, San Francisco and Ventura counties. The average fee for a marriage license in those counties is $100 and $107 for a confidential license. The highest current licensing fees in those counties are in San Diego, which charges $129 for a standard license and $144 for a confidential one. Orange County charges the least, at $61 and $66 respectively.
The fee increases would increase the RR/CC’s annual revenue by approximately $5.1 million, according to Logan’s letter.
However, the increases drew some protest from the wedding industry. A coalition of the region’s wedding chapels, officers and special notaries, objected to the price hikes, suggesting they would push couples to get married instead in surrounding counties or even Las Vegas, “severely harming the local industry.”
“The flight factor and detrimental economic impact were simply not considered,” Alan Katz, owner of the Cute Little Wedding Chapel in Long Beach and spokesman for the coalition, said in a statement.
“We are eager to work with the Office of the Registrar on reform using technology and partnerships to make marriage services more efficient, fairer and accessible to all,” Katz said. “We agree that an increase is inevitable, but it must be lawful, realistic and fair, and not a barrier for families.”
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