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Full Report (PDF) - Office of the Legislative Auditor

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DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 61Ano<strong>the</strong>r problem is that each deputy who initially incorporates receives a windfallpr<strong>of</strong>it upon <strong>the</strong> sale, and subsequent owners would have to make a capital investment,raising <strong>the</strong> fees necessary to make <strong>the</strong> deputy financially viable.One mgument in favor <strong>of</strong> continuing <strong>the</strong> current incorporation law is that sales allowdeputies to be rewarded for building up <strong>the</strong>ir business by providing good service,<strong>the</strong> same as occurs in <strong>the</strong> private sector. Some private deputies have built up<strong>the</strong>ir business by finding good locations and providing good service. However,<strong>the</strong> value <strong>of</strong> a deputy registrar comes hugely from <strong>the</strong> exclusive right to operate ina protected environment. Unlike most private sector businesses, deputy registrarsare protected from competition that could take away some <strong>of</strong> that business. Undera protected environment, deputy registrars have value even if <strong>the</strong>y provide mediocreservice. In addition, our financial analysis indicates that private deputies arerewarded for building up <strong>the</strong>ir business by receiving higher incomes.Some deputy registrars contend that since many sales have already taken place,taking away <strong>the</strong> right to sell a deputy registrnr would be unfair to those who havepurchased corporate deputy registrars. As <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> 1993,20 out <strong>of</strong>78 privatedeputy registrars have been sold, including 4 that were within <strong>the</strong>_family. Saleprices have ranged up to $108,000, even though none <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> large private deputieshave been sold.According toSenateCounsel, a'corporation. has noproperty rightin <strong>the</strong>continuation <strong>of</strong>an appointmentas deputyregistrar.Fur<strong>the</strong>nnore, some argue that repealing <strong>the</strong> authority to appoint a corporation asdeputy registrar would be a taking <strong>of</strong> property rights that could not be done withoutcompensation. We asked Senate Counsel to analyze whe<strong>the</strong>r a corporate deputyregistrnr has a property right sufficient to require compensation should <strong>the</strong>Legislature repeal <strong>the</strong> Commissioner's authority to appoint a corporation as a deputyregistrar. According to Senate Counsel's analysis, shown in Appendix A, a privatecorporation has no property right in <strong>the</strong> continuation <strong>of</strong> an appointment,regardless <strong>of</strong> how valuable <strong>the</strong> appointment is to <strong>the</strong> corporation .To maintain <strong>the</strong> public's discretion over who becomes a deputy registrar, and tomaintain low capitalization requirements for deputy registrars, we recommendthat:• The Legislature should consider repealing <strong>the</strong> commissioner'sauthority to appoint corporations as deputy registrars.While those who purchased a corporate deputy registrar may have assumed that<strong>the</strong>y would also be able to sell <strong>the</strong> corporation, we think that it is in <strong>the</strong> public interestto discontinue sales <strong>of</strong> deputy registrars.

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