The Post editorial:

Boulder County the latest example that Colorado’s system for handling property deeds and foreclosures is a mess.

Colorado’s system for handling property deeds and foreclosures is still a mess. The latest evidence comes from a story in the Boulder Daily Camera where the public trustee office is about two months away from running out of operating funds after years of dipping into reserves.

Boulder County Trustee Jim Martin points to the fact that his office’s operating revenue is entirely dependent on fees for foreclosures and the release of deeds. Fees that have remained flat since 2001 are logically due to be increased — the cost of living in this great state alone has skyrocketed since then.

However, it’s the height of irresponsibility to allow a public office to dwindle reserve funds since 2015, creating a crisis where it’s unclear if relief will come in time to avert a shutdown of services to the public. And make no mistake, it is the public that will suffer if Martin’s office is forced to shrink its staff even more than the two fulltime employees and one part-time employee who are there now in addition to Martin.

It’s up to Colorado lawmakers to set the fees for deed and foreclosure filings across the state, but in the absence of a bill this session, which will end in May just as Martin said he expects to run out of reserve funding, things are looking dire for Boulder County.

Fees are set at $150 for a foreclosure and $15 for the release of a deed of trust. Martin is advocating for increasing the release of deed fee by $5, which would generate enough revenue to put his office back in the black.

Karla Bagley, Garfield County trustee and president of the Public Trustee Association of Colorado, told the Daily Camera that many counties are struggling with declining revenue because of the strong economy.

That may sound counterintui- tive, but when times are good there are fewer foreclosures and often higher interest rates that discourage refinancing transactions which require changes in a deed of trust document.

Bagley said most counties weather the down times by cutting staff and other expenses. The operations in Boulder seem to already be down to the bare bones, however, supporting the argument for a fee increase.

Part of the problem is founded in the bifurcated way Colorado handles its trustee system.

Ten of the state’s trustees are appointed by the governor and run independent offices in the counties they serve. The other 54 counties have trustees rolled into an existing elected official position and the associated county office of either the clerk and recorder or most often the treasurer.

In 2012 the appointed trustees all resigned or retired in the wake of a scandal over varying levels of mishandled funds and questionable perks. Since then, by all accounts, the system has been reformed under a batch of new appointees. Then in 2016 we learned that several trustee offices across the state were overcharging homeowners during the foreclosure process and returning excess funds to the banks and lawyers rather than the homeowner.

Both of those issues have been resolved, but Colorado needs to consider the big picture effectiveness of having two systems in place simultaneously.

Regardless of our belief that significant economies of scale could be realized by doing away with the stand-alone trustee departments, it’s incumbent upon lawmakers to adequately fund the system that is in place now. Passing a $5 fee increase this session and revisiting the bigger picture question of governance next session makes sense to us.