Vehicle Title Fee Help Clerk’s Offices Facilitate Business

Putnam County Clerk Wayne Nabors said implementing a $3 title fee increase has benefited clerk’s offices across the state.

Nabors said state officials came up with an $11 lien fee with the intention for Clerk’s offices to collect them. However, he said there was no provision to pay the clerks a commission to do that work. Nabors said the bill was implemented with that $3 fee to be restricted specifically for County Clerk’s offices.

“There were some smaller counties that were struggling for fees and this has blessed them to the max,” Nabors said. “It has allowed them to give some much-needed raises to their county employees who have been so very faithful to work in the County Clerk’s office.”

Nabors said some of the larger counties were even able to add four to eight new employees. He said that just a $3 increase across all titles brings in up to an additional $100,000 to the Putnam County Clerk’s Office annually. To process 35,000 titles per year, Nabors said the additional staffing is crucial.

Nabors said the efforts started with the help of Representative Ryan Williams and Senator Paul Bailey for the last four years. As implemented, it requires that the retained funds be earmarked for office supplies and equipment related to those title processes.

“It’s unbelievable how many titles we print so you take three bucks and times that, it’s essentially what’s going to bring in,” Nabors said. “So it is a huge boost to collect those fees for my department.”

Nabors said he is hopeful that the fees continue to bring a positive to the offices across the state so they might work more efficiently for all of their citizens.