LTCs were $10/5 years until 1998. Then they went up to $25/4 years. My Wife was charged $35 and the chief's excuse (when I told him it was illegal for him to do that . . . the law specified the fee) was "it cost him man-hours to do the process!" (which is true).
I made a stink with the chief's boss, our state rep & state senator. Eventually he was given marching orders to comply with the law and it was dropped back to $25. Did we get a rebate of $10, no way in hell! The town kept the money that they stole from taxpayers.
Now that it is up to $100/6 years (changed from $25 to $100 in 2003 IIRC and that was for 4 years, recent change due to GOAL's persistence took place last year to 6 years), there are two statutory exemptions for LE - If it is issued by the same department that employees the LEO it is free, if the LEO works for any other agency the fee is supposed to be $25. Well, I applied for the $25 rate and was denied . . . the chief doesn't consider Constables to be LE (even though per MGLs we have LE and arrest powers) . . . his response is that we are "not police" (but the law says "law enforcement" not "police"). Sheriffs Dept, Aux POs, Special POs, Campus POs, etc. are regularly denied the LE rate as not being "police" in the eyes of the chiefs. We can all just piss up a rope because just like common citizens with no LE connections, the individual licensing authorities can do damn near anything that they please and get away with it.
