House Appropriations panel advances bill to implement Proposition 130, amid dispute over financing and timing

Vice Chair Byrd presented Senate Bill 310 to the House Appropriations Committee on behalf of the bill sponsors and moved it to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation; the committee approved the motion 9 to 2.

The bill implements Proposition 130, a voter-approved measure that creates a peace officer training and support fund with $350,000,000 directed to recruitment, pay, bonuses, and initial and continuing training for peace officers, and a $1,000,000 death benefit for first responders killed in the line of duty. Representative Taggart, a co-sponsor, described the measure as intended to “hire and retain local peace officers, support their pay and bonuses, and their initial and continuing education and training.”

The bill establishes that funds must supplement—not supplant—existing federal, state and local funding and creates oversight and reporting requirements to enforce that restriction. Vice Chair…