S.B. 970: COMMITTEE SUMMARY - CONCEALED WEAPON APPLICATION
Senate Bill 970 (as introduced 3-3-98)
Sponsor: Senator John D. Cherry, Jr.
Committee: Hunting, Fishing and Forestry
Date Completed: 3-24-98
CONTENT
The bill would amend the handgun licensure Act to set a time limit for processing concealed weapon license applications. The bill also would delete provisions requiring a $10 fee for licenses and appeals, remitting to the State Treasurer $2 for each license issued, and allowing a different licensing fee for charter counties.
The bill would require a local unit to process an application and fingerprint forms, for a concealed weapon license, within five business days after receipt of the application. An extension of an additional period of up to five business days would be authorized if an unforeseeable circumstance prevented processing within the first five business days. The local unit would be required to pay a $10 civil fine to the applicant for each day after the extension period until the fingerprint cards and the application were processed.
Currently, a county clerk must collect a $10 licensing fee from an applicant for each license delivered to the applicant. Under the bill, the county clerk could not collect a licensing fee.
If an applicant does not receive local approval for a concealed weapon license, he or she may file an appeal with the concealed weapon licensing board of his or her county. The applicant must deposit $10 with the county clerk at the time the appeal is made. If a license is not issued after appeal, the $10 is credited to the general fund of the county. If a license is issued after appeal, the $10 must be processed as the license fee required under the Act. The bill would delete these fee provisions and specify that a fee could not be charged to process an appeal.
Under current law, on the first day of each month the county clerk must remit to the State Treasurer $2 for each license issued during the preceding month. On the first day of each month the county clerk must pay into the general fund of the county the remainder of each license fee for each license issued during the preceding month. A charter county may impose by ordinance a different amount for the concealed weapon licensing fee prescribed, but must not impose a fee that is more than the cost of the service for which the fee is charged. The bill would delete these provisions.
MCL 28.422 et al. - Legislative Analyst: N. Nagata
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would remove the requirements that $2 for each concealed weapon license issued be deposited in the State's General Fund, and that $8 for each license be deposited in a county's general fund. Currently, there are 18,540 such licenses issued statewide.
The bill also would remove a $10 fee to appeal to a concealed weapon licensing board, which now goes to the county general fund if the appeal is denied, or is treated as a license fee if the appeal is granted. In addition, the bill would require the county to pay a $10 per day fine to an applicant when the local unit did not process an application within five business days of receiving the application. It is not known how frequently this five-day processing requirement would not be met by a local unit of government.
S9798\S970SA
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.