Duval officials begin steps to consider HB 2015 public-safety sales tax and linked CJTC grant

City Administrator Cynthia McNabb opened a discussion Aug. 19 on HB 2015 — the state law authorizing a 0.1% local option sales tax for criminal-justice and public-safety uses and a linked Criminal Justice Training Commission grant program.

The draft presentation said the state has set aside a $100 million grant pool to be administered by CJTC and that grant awards will run for three years. "You cannot get the grant if the city does not put in and implement the [criminal-justice] sales tax," McNabb said, describing the two funding streams as “correlated with each other.”

Why it matters: the sales-tax option would give Duval a dedicated, ongoing revenue source for policing and related public-safety programs; the linked grant could pay up to 75% of salary and benefits for certain new hires for up to three years and give priority to applications with co‑response mental‑health elements. Staff estimated a Duval criminal-justice sales tax at 0.1% would generate roughly…