CBI uping the fee

[OtterbatHellcat]

Truth.

BGC fees can get to $100 before I give a shit because so much more stuff will be way beyond effed up by then, it really won't matter.

[asmo]

Information Technology doesn't create a profit, but a drain. Ever increasing costs of hardware, software, security and people to support all that. Unfortunately it costs $'s.

CBI's InstaCheck Unit is profitable. Just like the FBI's NICS.

[theGinsue]

Upon examining expenses, the CBI has determined a re-calibration of the InstaCheck transaction fee is necessary to maintain current service levels to InstaCheck customers. Therefore, beginning Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 12:01 A.M. (MST), the CBI will increase the fee for a firearm background check from $6.00 to $15.00 (USD). Any firearm background check processed prior to this date will be assessed the $6.00 fee, including the January 1, 2018 through January 31, 2018 transactions listed on the invoices to be mailed the beginning of February 2018. For additional information please visit https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cbi/fflinformation.

I'm calling bullshit on their declaration for why it's getting raised. Pure revenue grab.

[Ronin13]

TABOR stands in the way of every other increase to state revenue. That the discussion of doubling the price to hunt and increasing the cost to purchase guns happens to affect those most likely to maintain TABOR may or may not be a coincidence. It probably is though, because TABOR seems powerful enough to block enough tax hikes that this kind of death by fee increase will infiltrate everything possible and will transcend political boundaries.

Haven't you heard? TABOR is effectively dead. And if it's not, it's on life-support, and the prognosis isn't good.

Not true in scale. E.g. like the medical field - the cost increases are due to regulatory/medicaid/insurance handling; but software otherwise has or would-have cut the amount of labor overhead tremendously. Purchasing expensive software licenses is NOTHING compared to the cost of even a single low wage employee a year.

CBI will be very, very profitable at $15.00. Having ran thousands of 4473's, I can tell you the FFL does 90% of the work for them, the actual labor time spent per check per CBI employee is probably about 3 minutes at most and they don't waste much time. 20 checks per hour per employee = $300/hour. Considering that in any industry, employees are almost always the biggest expenditure, it's hard to believe that the labor is only 5% of CBI's overhead. (Or 10% if we assume management costs = actual labor costs, which would be.. exaggerated).

Let's also not forget that the databases they search are not maintained by CBI - instacheck software is not complex - at all. Developing the software to gather and process 4473's on the dealer end and submit them is far more complex.

We need an external audit. When it comes to the state of CO, TRUST NOTHING.

Thanks for that explanation. I still would like to know how many employees at CBI are dedicated to BGC for firearms purchase, and on-average, how many each runs per day. If they up the cost, they should increase staffing and days where we have to wait an hour + for a background check to be complete should be a thing of the past. Of course this won't be the case.

[DavieD55]

We need an external audit. When it comes to the state of CO, TRUST NOTHING.

^^^^^

[Little Dutch]

I am opposed to paying the CBI to run these checks in the first place. Ever bought a rifle out of state? The Federal BG check is free and much faster than going through CBI, even for a non-resident purchase. One time the guy at Sportsman's Warehouse in WY actually apologized to me because the wait was so long. It took 3 minutes.

Edit; Not free, but already paid for.

[RblDiver]

I'd be interested to see how a CO Constitution amendment dictating that fees are now subject to TABOR restrictions would do. My bet is it'd go down in flames thanks to all the Californication going on, but wouldn't that be a nice way to shut them down.

[Gman]

At least the bar has been raised for constitutional amendments. Too bad some really bad ones (IMO) got in there before that happened.

[Skip]

From State Sen. Kevin Lundberg's email "report" (just got it)

2. Background Check Fees Going Up 250%

This week I was informed that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) is raising the background check fee for gun purchases from $6 to $15. Unfortunately they have the authority to raise this fee without any additional legislative oversight (something I have consistently fought against for all departments).

DPS assures me it is "temporary," in order to make up for higher costs, but I find this increase to be completely unacceptable and want to know what the governor has to say about this increase.

This is particularly troubling for two reasons. The first is this fee (tax) is required if one tries to exercise their Second Amendment right to purchase a firearm in Colorado. It looks a lot like the poll taxes that some states imposed many years ago (which were determined to be unconstitutional).

Secondly, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which Colorado could be using instead of the DPS system, has no fee. If the Colorado background check is so expensive to operate, why not suspend the Colorado program and let the Federal system work for Colorado?

[O2HeN2]

I remember even gunowners backing the CBI check because as originally passed, fees came out of the general fund (no direct charge to the gun purchaser) because it was for "the common good".

Didn't take long to change it to penalize the gun purchaser, and now to further disincentivize evyl gun ownership, the fee is being raised. When will gun folks ever learn to not compromise?

O2