House committee backs bills to create public safety and violence-prevention trust fund

The House Committee on Government Operations on Wednesday voted to report House Bills 4260 and 4261 out of committee, advancing a proposal to create a permanent Public Safety and Violence Prevention Trust Fund funded by sales-tax revenue.

Sponsors Representative Harris and Representative Farhat described the package as a bipartisan effort to steer dedicated, predictable funding to local crime-prevention programs, community violence intervention (CVI) groups and victim services. “By depositing a hundred and $15,000,000 a year from the sales tax revenue, we can give our communities the tools they need to fight back against violent crime and save lives,” Representative Harris said.

The bills, as presented to the committee, would direct a large share of the annual deposit to local units of government. Representative Farhat told the committee that $75,000,000 would be distributed to cities, townships and villages, that 2 percent would be set aside for a statewide CVI grant program, and that 2 percent would be reserved for crime-victim services. Farhat also said the package includes a separate allocation to county sheriff’s offices: “40,000,000 goes to our county sheriff’s partners based on their departmental size of officers,” he said. The bills…