SB 777 - Current law allows the Department of Revenue to promulgate rules and regulations for the awarding of fee office contracts. This act requires such rules to give preference to certain factors in the following order of importance: 1) Persons or entities currently operating one or more fee offices in compliance with current law; 2) persons and entities that are based in the county in which the fee office is located; 3) certain tax-exempt organizations; and 4) persons and entities that reinvest at least seventy-five percent of net proceeds to charitable organizations in the state. If the Department utilizes a scoring mechanism to evaluate bids, such scoring mechanism shall ensure that a person or entity currently operating one or more fee offices shall receive a bonus of ten percent of the available points. No contract shall be awarded to a person or entity that is not a resident of the state, as defined in the act.
This act also requires the Department to submit an annual report to the General Assembly that provides information on each fee office contract awarded, including the performance of each entity on any scoring mechanism used by the Department to evaluate bids.
This act is substantially similar to HB 2121 (2020) and to a provision contained in HCS/SB 686 (2020), HCS/SB 782 (2020), HCS/SCS/SB 867 (2020), and HB 1800 (2020).
JOSH NORBERG