The Private Acts Committee voted April 7 to report House Bill 14-30, a local Union County measure that recalculates building-permit fees by square foot and increases certain permit rates.

Chairman Powers, the bill sponsor, described the proposal as a local recalculation of permit fees. He said the last fee increase occurred in February 2005 and that the bill “recalculates the rate of the building permits” and applies a per-square-foot formula. In committee the sponsor described the change as “$2.50 cents per square foot for both,” and later answered a member’s example by saying a 1,000-square-foot house under the proposal would cost $500 — an exchange that produced inconsistent arithmetic during discussion.

Representative Sherrill asked the sponsor to confirm the calculation for a 1,000-square-foot house. Chairman Powers replied with the example amount and said the current flat fee had been $225 and was last raised in 2005. Ruben Stevens asked whether new revenue would fund only the property assessor’s office or flow to the county general fund; Powers said the sponsor had been told the increase is primarily for the property assessor’s office but that if collections exceed needs some counties route excess to the general fund.

Committee members pressed for whether other counties use square-foot formulas or flat fees; the sponsor said many counties use a flat fee and return to raise it periodically, and that the square-foot approach was intended to be more equitable. The clerk reported the committee vote as yes 5, no 3, present not voting 2. The chair concluded the bill will go out of committee.