When you buy a car, you often wind up paying the dealer another chunk of money for the paperwork that has to be filled out before the car is yours. The legislature is moving to either limit those charges or establish them, depending on your point of view.

Missouri is one of only fourteen states not regulating the administrative fees car dealers can charge. Some dealers don’t charge customers for the work. But the sponsor of the legislation, Senator Tom Dempsey of St. Peters, says some dealers charge 600-dollars or more for the cost of notaries and temporary vehicle permits, state and federal odometer disclosure forms, documents required by a lender, vehicle sales tax and registration research–and more.

Dempsey’s bill caps the fee at $199.95.

But one critic, Senator Delbert Scott of Lowry City, thinks the bill is less about a ceiling than it is about a floor. He thinks the bill lets every dealer charge 200-dollars, even if they charge less than that now. And he says they will.

Despite his opposition, the Senate has sent Dempsey’s bill to the House.

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