SB1573 amends the Illinois Notary Public Act to temporarily waive the $25 fee charged to applicants for a commission as an electronic notary public. Under current law, applicants for a standard notary commission pay a $15 fee, and applicants for an electronic notary commission pay an additional $25 fee that is deposited into the Electronic Notarization Fund. This bill adds a new subsection providing that the electronic notary fee shall not be paid or collected for a limited period.
The waiver is temporary: the new subsection becomes inoperative two years after the effective date of the amendatory Act. The bill does not change the underlying requirement to obtain a notary commission or the separate fee for a regular notary public commission; it only suspends the extra charge associated with becoming an electronic notary. The act takes effect upon becoming law.
Impact
The bill directly amends Section 2-103 of the Illinois Notary Public Act (5 ILCS 312/2-103) by creating a temporary fee waiver for electronic notary applicants. It affects the Secretary of State’s fee collection and the Electronic Notarization Fund by eliminating the $25 deposit from those applicants during the waiver period, while leaving the $15 general notary fee intact. The practical effect is to reduce the upfront cost of obtaining an electronic notary commission for a limited time.
Sentiment
No committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, so there is no documented debate or roll-call history to indicate partisan or stakeholder sentiment. Based on the bill text and caption, the measure appears administrative and facilitative rather than controversial, with an apparent policy goal of encouraging electronic notarization by lowering the cost of entry.
Contention
Because there are no transcripts or votes, no specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. Potential areas of concern, if raised, would likely involve the temporary loss of revenue to the Electronic Notarization Fund or whether waiving the fee could affect program administration, but those issues are not reflected in the available record.