Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Local Criminal Justice Funding topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee hears bill to allow optional 0.1% local sales tax for criminal justice grants, create CJTC grant program
Summary
House Bill 2015 would authorize cities and counties to impose an optional 0.1% sales-and-use tax dedicated to criminal justice purposes and create a Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) grant program to fund hiring, retention and training. Sponsors and law-enforcement groups backed the proposal; staff clarified eligibility and reporting.
House Bill 2015, which would allow cities and counties to impose a 0.1% local sales-and-use tax for criminal justice purposes and establish a CJTC-administered grant program, received broad support from local governments, law-enforcement organizations and the governor’s office at the Feb. 24 House Finance Committee hearing.
Tracy Taylor, committee staff, explained that existing local sales-and-use tax authorities include a basic 0.5% and an optional 0.5%, and that other local option taxes may be restricted for specific uses. Under the bill, a city or county could impose a new 0.1% tax whose revenue must be used for criminal justice purposes; qualified jurisdictions would receive quarterly distributions and be eligible for competitive grants administered by the Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC). Taylor described the grant program’s goals: hiring, retaining and training law enforcement to increase community policing and public safety, and listed eligibility criteria and reporting requirements, including metrics on retention and officer compliance with CJTC training standards.
Representative Deborah Entenman, prime sponsor, said the bill is intended to fund a “resilient system of public safety” that goes beyond hiring officers to include housing, youth programs and other supports. “What I’m hoping to do with this bill…is to be able to work with the governor’s office to try to solve the problem” by funding a range of services, Entenman said.
Nathan Olsen, public safety policy adviser to Governor Inslee, urged passage and noted the governor’s commitment to a $100 million state grant package for local law enforcement. Law-enforcement associations testified in favor, describing workforce shortages and supporting the bill’s mix of a local option and a state grant program. King County, the Association of Counties, the Association of Washington Cities and several mayors also signed in support, praising the flexibility to target funding for training, crisis response and local program priorities.
The CJTC-created grant program would require applicants to have written policies aligned to state standards, demonstrate training compliance rates (for example, 80% compliance with 40-hour crisis intervention training), and report on vacancies. The committee paused the hearing for further consideration; no vote was taken on Feb. 24.
