MALONE -- A local law must be passed for Franklin County to raise fees the County Clerk's Office charges to cover record-filing costs.

Certain filing fees applied as part of closing costs in property transactions have not been increased in 30 years, said County Clerk Wanda Murtagh.

Filing a three-page document with a cover sheet now costs $44, and the county keeps $25 of that.

But under the new fee schedule, the cost for the same document would increase to $60, with the county keeping $40.

"It's the cost of doing business and keeping up with technology," Murtagh says, which allows her staff to provide instant access to computerized documents and produce certified copies for the public.

Using transactions from 2007 as an example, she estimated the increase would generate an extra $111,865 in its first six months and about $266,000 a year.

But if the local law were not passed, the change would cost the county between $40,000 and $50,000 a year, since a $10 cover-page fee now charged is being eliminated, whether the county adopts the new fee schedule or not.

County legislators will consider a fee-increase resolution at their next meeting, on Aug. 7, when they are expected to set a public-hearing date for the proposed local law.

If the County Legislature adopts the law, it goes into effect as soon as it is filed with New York's secretary of state.

Murtagh said letters could go out to local attorneys about the new fee schedule by mid-September.

"Each individual county must approve the increase in fees. We haven't seen this happen in 30 years."

It is a way to bring some uniformity to the charges and paperwork that clerks accept in 51 of the state's counties. In the past, each entity had set its own fees and form-filing requirements.

Murtagh said the state finally saw how much work and diversified filing the counties do without payment and recognized the need for some cash to remain where it is generated.

"There's a state fee attached to everything we do. And they aren't going to give something back to us."