Effort to end concealed carry permit fees fails

Prince William County will continue collecting $50 from residents who apply for a concealed weapons permit.

In a move that some called a political stunt, Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart tried to lobby fellow Supervisors to order the court to stop collecting $40 of the fee charged in courthouses statewide.

“There’s been a lot of arguing against this, and I have thought this through. We don’t’ charge people for their rights, the rights guaranteed to them in the Bill of Rights,” said Stewart from the dais inside the Board of Supervisors chambers.

Stewart, who is rumored to mount a run for governor next year, had been working for weeks to make Prince William the first Commonwealth to stop collecting the fee. The county has received $86,000 so far this fiscal year, which ends June 30, in concealed carry permit fees. More than 5,300 permits have been issued in the past year, and the county has collected $11,000 more than the county budgeted.

Of the $50 charged for each application, the county sheriff’s office retains $30 and performs the criminal background check for the applicant. The Clerk of the Circuit Court keeps $10, and Virginia State Police gets $5 as it maintains a statewide database of permit holders.

Some of the additional $11,000 went to replace aging equipment at the sheriff’s office, Prince William County Sheriff Glen Hill told the Board of Supervisors.

“Whenever there is an excuse for some kind of permit it becomes a money grab,” said Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland. “I would ask how much does it actually costs to get the handgun permit; I would wager it would cost drastically lower than $50. It’s an over taxation of residents to fund every other program.”

A discussion about concealed handgun permits quicky turned to that of the county budget.

Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank Principi questioned how the county would make up the lost revenue in the years ahead if the fee were abolished.

Acting County Attorney Christopher Martino said the county would be able to cover the $75,000 cost of recovering the permit fees indefinitely. The county saved $275,000 annually after it stopped paying Peumansend Creek Regional Jail in Bowling Green to rent space for Prince William inmates that had been “farmed out” there. Those inmates have been returned to the Adult Detention Center in Prince William County, said Martino.

Others simply questioned the need to abolish the fee.

“I’ve not had one person call me about paying the 45 fee,” said Potomac District Supervisor Maureen Caddigan.

Principi challenged Stewart’s Bill of Rights statement.

“Prince William county is not charging for the right to charge for the right to bear arms. We’re talking about the right to conceal. The Constitution does not guarantee the right to conceal,” said Principi.

Coles District Supervisor Marty Nohe urged the Board to give state legislators in Richmond more time to review Stewart’s proposal.

In the end, the Board voted on a failed motion to order the sheriff’s office to stop collecting the permit fee with a promise officials would fully and permanently restore the lost funding in the sheriff’s budget in the final 2017 budget document to be approved in April.

Stewart, Candland, Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson, Brenstville Supervisor Jeanine Lawson voted yes. Caddigan, Principi, Nohe, and Neabsco Supervisor John Jenkins voted no.

The motioned failed in a tied vote. Many on the Board said this issue should back up later this spring as Supervisors finalize the county’s 2017 budget.