Marriage licenses at a discount?

Currently in the state of FL, a marriage license costs $93.50 and if you participate in 4 hours of pre-marital counseling you get a discounted rate of $61.00. Apparently the 32.50 saved is not enough of discount as many couples are not bothering to take advantage of the lower rate. Consequently there is a proposed bill that would raise the cost of the license to 193.50 and give a discount of 132.50 for 8 hours of pre-marital counseling. The cost of the license is still the same if you engage in counseling ($61) but the economic benefit is greater if the new bill passes because it would be so much more expensive should you for-go counseling and the amount of counseling required goes up.

I thought this was really interesting and wanted to know what your reactions are! I feel like pre-marital counseling is often a requirement if you want to be married in a church or by certain pastors so it makes sense to me, but obviously there are lots of people currently not getting pre-marital counseling, so would the new law punish these people?

Food for thought today people, let me know what you think :)

xoxo,
EHK

PS: here are couple of articles debating this situation
For the bill

Against the bill
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5 comments:

Dani Brook said...

In Tennessee, you get a discount for attending pre-marital counseling. It's a huge deal although, I am unsure of the exact discount. My husband and I participated in counseling because we wanted too, the discount was just an added advantage!!



katie lake said...

I am in Tennessee. My best friend is getting married in May. She and her fiance have been doing marriage counseling. Here a license is $98 but if you do four hours of marriage counseling it is $38. They have been doing their counseling with ministers at the churches they grew up in on Sunday afternoons. I know for some people it can be a burden but for my friends they have been perfectly happy to go through the process.



KRISTEN'S PALACE said...

wow ohio must not care at all lol. our is 40.00 dollars and they could care less if you have counseling.



Imjustagirl said...

hmmmm.... I live in Florida and this is the first I am hearing of this maybe I need to spend less time reading blogs and more time reading the paper. Nah! I love reading blogs. I understand the reason they push for the class is to try and drop the divorce rate. I am all for it. I just wonder where is the class and who teaches it? I have heard of churches and religous sect. doing this but it is baised on how that religo views marriage. so I'd be curious



mmmelissa said...

I think the increase in price would maybe encourage more people to take part in pre-marital counseling, which may actually be a good thing.