FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 492

94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY


 

 

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE BAKER (123).

                  Read 1st time January 18, 2007 and copies ordered printed.

D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk

0205L.01I


 

AN ACT

To repeal section 193.265, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to vital records.




Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:


            Section A. Section 193.265, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 193.265, to read as follows:

            193.265. 1. For the issuance of a certification or copy of a death record, the applicant shall pay a fee of thirteen dollars for the first certification or copy and a fee of ten dollars for each additional copy ordered at that time. For the issuance of a certification or copy of a birth, marriage, divorce, or fetal death record, the applicant shall pay a fee of fifteen dollars. All fees shall be deposited to the state department of revenue. Beginning August 28, 2004, for each vital records fee collected, the director of revenue shall credit four dollars to the general revenue fund, five dollars to the children's trust fund, one dollar shall be credited to the endowed care cemetery audit fund, and three dollars for the first copy of death records and five dollars for birth, marriage, divorce, and fetal death records shall be credited to the Missouri public services health fund established in section 192.900, RSMo. Money in the endowed care cemetery audit fund shall be available by appropriation to the division of professional registration to pay its expenses in administering sections 214.270 to 214.410, RSMo. All interest earned on money deposited in the endowed care cemetery audit fund shall be credited to the endowed care cemetery fund. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 33.080, RSMo, to the contrary, money placed in the endowed care cemetery audit fund shall not be transferred and placed to the credit of general revenue until the amount in the fund at the end of the biennium exceeds three times the amount of the appropriation from the endowed care cemetery audit fund for the preceding fiscal year. The money deposited in the public health services fund under this section shall be deposited in a separate account in the fund, and moneys in such account, upon appropriation, shall be used to automate and improve the state vital records system, and develop and maintain an electronic birth and death registration system which shall be implemented no later than December 31, 2009. For any search of the files and records, when no record is found, the state shall be entitled to a fee equal to the amount for a certification of a vital record for a five-year search to be paid by the applicant. For the processing of each legitimation, adoption, court order or recording after the registrant's twelfth birthday, the state shall be entitled to a fee equal to the amount for a certification of a vital record. Except whenever a certified copy or copies of a vital record is requested by any federal, state, or local governmental entity for investigative purposes, or is required to perfect any claim of any person on relief, or any dependent of any person who was on relief for any claim upon the government of the state or United States, the state registrar shall, upon request, furnish a certified copy or so many certified copies as are necessary, without any fee or compensation therefor.

            2. For the issuance of a certification of a death record by the local registrar, the applicant shall pay a fee of thirteen dollars for the first certification or copy and a fee of ten dollars for each additional copy ordered at that time. For the issuance of a certification or copy of a birth, marriage, divorce, or fetal death record, the applicant shall pay a fee of fifteen dollars. All fees shall be deposited to the official city or county health agency. A certified copy of a death record by the local registrar can only be issued within twenty-four hours of receipt of the record by the local registrar. Computer-generated certifications of death records may be issued by the local registrar after twenty-four hours of receipt of the records. The fees paid to the official county health agency shall be retained by the local agency for local public health purposes.