The author of a California Bill to raise the amount Notaries may charge for their services told hundreds of Notaries that they should be treated the same as other professional service providers and be allowed to set their own prices.
“I am a small business person and a professional service provider, and I set my own prices,” said Assembly Member David Hadley during a speech in June to Notaries attending NNA 2016 in Anaheim, California. “There’s no reason why you shouldn’t set your own prices.”
Hadley authored AB 2217, which would increase the maximum fees Notaries could charge for acknowledgments and jurats from $10 to $15, and raise the fees for other notarial acts as well.
Perhaps the most important support for AB 2217 has come from Golden State Notaries. In April, the NNA asked California Notaries to voice their support for the bill, and they responded with an outpouring of approval. We delivered more than 1,200 messages to Assembly Member Hadley. Your collective and powerful statement to the Legislature put AB 2217 on the fast-track through the state Legislature and it is now awaiting the Governor's signature. (UPDATE: AB 2217 was signed into law by Gov. Brown and the new CA Notary fees take effect January 1, 2017.)
Hadley isn’t the only one backing higher fees. Steve Fazio, a Republican candidate for California’s 27th Senate District has come out in support of allowing California Notaries to charge higher fees for their services because of the important role they play in fighting fraud. As an ally of the Notary community, Fazio visited the NNA’s Chatsworth headquarters to share that message with students taking a Notary training class earlier this summer.
The California measure is part of a larger trend in state legislatures to review the fees Notaries can charge. Among the notable fee measures, on April 8, 2016, Kentucky’s Governor signed a law permitting Notaries to set their own fees. Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts and Tennessee are the only other states that allow Notaries to set their own fees.