House bill would let counties, cities add 0.1% sales tax for criminal justice and create CJTC grant program

A bill that would let counties and cities impose a local 0.1% sales-and-use tax to raise money for criminal justice purposes drew broad support in the House Finance Committee on Feb. 24.

The measure, House Bill 20‑15, would authorize a city or county legislative authority to adopt a 0.1% local sales-and-use tax, with revenues required to be used for "criminal justice purposes," and would create a supplemental criminal justice account in the state treasury and a Local Law Enforcement Grant Program administered by the Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC).

The CJTC briefing said the local option would be limited to a 0.1% rate and that, under the proposal, 10% of revenue from the existing criminal‑justice sales tax is retained by the county and 90% is shared per capita with cities. The CJTC grant program would provide quarterly distributions and awards to…