Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety And Regulation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commerce & Insurance asks $1M supplemental for line‑of‑duty deaths, details recruitment and training spending
Summary
Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Carter Lawrence asked for a $1 million supplemental for line‑of‑duty death benefits and outlined recurring salary and equipment costs, radio replacements and a targeted reduction in captive insurance marketing funds.
Carter Lawrence, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, presented his agency’s budget priorities to the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee and requested a $1 million supplemental appropriation for line‑of‑duty death benefits.
Lawrence outlined four recurring cost increases: statutorily mandated step increases for the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, a salary survey adjustment, and an ongoing depreciation appropriation for a recently replaced fire apparatus. The department also requested funding to purchase new radios after a tabletop exercise recommended improved interoperability for instructors and statewide incident response.
Nut graf: The commissioner framed the $1 million supplemental — $400,000 already encumbered and $600,000 requested for potential future line‑of‑duty costs — as contingency funding that would revert if unspent; he also proposed a modest reduction of $138,500 to captive insurance marketing and travel budgets to meet reduction requirements.
Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Peck provided specifics on the recruitment and retention grants for law enforcement that committee members asked about. Peck said the department has received a total of $84 million in the recruiting/retention and training buckets (described during the hearing as allocations from larger tranches). She said the first $30 million tranche — intended for recruitment — had committed approximately $17 million to date, covering about 2,150 officers with 622 payments already processed; participation included about 240 departments. Peck said a second $30 million tranche covered recruitment and retention measures (including bonuses) and that $12 million of a related tranche funded an $800 payment supplement (distributed to about 13,461 officers).
Committee members asked about the agency’s request to use recurring funds for apparatus depreciation; Lawrence said the request responds to vehicle asset management guidance and is expected to be temporary, with the cost removed from future budgets after the asset’s life is accounted for. The captive insurance cut is intended to trim marketing and travel spending while keeping the state’s captive domicile program competitive.
Ending: The committee voted to move the department’s budget to the Senate Finance Committee for consideration.
