If you own a dog in Bedford County it may cost you more to purchase a license for your furry friend.

The Bedford County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing Tuesday to consider raising dog licensing fees. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the County Administration Building .

The proposed cost to license a spayed or neutered dog will rise from $3 to $5. For non spayed or non-neutered dogs, the license fee is proposed to increase from $5 to $10.

New state legislation, which took effect July 1, requires veterinarians to forward rabies vaccination certificates to the treasurer’s office.

“This state requirement has increased the workload of the treasurer’s office to the point that the cost to process the tag and to complete the required paperwork has exceeded the income derived from the dog tags,” County Attorney Carl Boggess said .

In Roanoke, Treasurer Evelyn Powers said her office is feeling the strain, too.

“All the vets in the city, they have to send those rabies certificates to my office,” she said.

Just because a pet owner visits a Roanoke veterinarian, it does not mean the owner is a city resident.

“If it is not a city address, we have to figure out where it is and forward the certificate to those localities,” Powers said.

Roanoke developed a software program specifically to manage the rabies vaccination certificates, but Powers’ office is still challenged with finding enough time for staff to input the data.

The employee responsible for the rabies certificates needs to devote approximately three work days each week to the task, but other more pressing issues keep that from happening, Powers said.

“It is very, very time consuming and most of the time for only five to $10,” she said. “All those hours spent doing delinquent tax collection could bring in a lot more money.”

Powers does not foresee the city’s providing additional staffing to keep up with the increased workload.

“I haven’t said anything yet about increasing the fees,” she said.

On Friday afternoon Powers said her staff was unable to process any rabies certificates because of the need to post real estate tax payments.

Beginning Jan. 1, treasurers’ offices statewide also will be responsible for billing residents who have rabies certificates on file but have not purchased dog licenses.

The legislation was introduced by Del. Bobby Orrock, R-Spotsylvania County, after a Spotsylvania resident was mauled to death by a neighbor’s pit bulls in March 2005 . The three dogs weren’t licensed, which initially made it difficult for authorities to tie them to Deanna Large, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter .

The Virginian-Pilot contributed to this report.