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Benton County commission authorizes $12.50 court surcharge to fund local DA operations
Summary
The commission approved a $12.50 surcharge on state misdemeanor and felony court calls to create a locally controlled fund for the district attorney’s office; the DA said the change would replace a state-restricted Economic Crime Fund and allow local spending on investigators and social services.
Benton County commissioners on a December agenda approved a $12.50 surcharge assessed in county courts to fund district attorney operations, a move the district attorney said will shift costs away from taxpayers and give local officials more control over spending. The commission recorded a 15–1 vote on the resolution authorizing the charge under the cited Tennessee code provision.
District Attorney Neil Thompson introduced the fund during the commission meeting, saying the new $12.50 assessment would appear on court dockets for state misdemeanors and felonies processed in Benton County and that the money collected would be available for local use. “Either we can have criminals pay for this stuff or the voters and the taxpayers can pay for this stuff,” Thompson said, arguing the county would benefit if defendants paid allowable court-imposed fees. He said the new fund will replace the Economic Crime Fund (ECF), which the state restricts for nonlocal uses such as conferences.
Thompson and Public Defender Taz Gordon described likely uses for the local fund, including hiring additional investigators or social workers and funding local educational and victim-related programs. Thompson cautioned that early receipts in smaller counties may be modest — citing an initial $400 month example from neighboring Henry County — but said pooled receipts across several counties could grow over time.
Commission discussion focused on mechanics and administration: commissioners asked who collects the fee (the clerk), confirmed a 5% clerk collection allowance, and sought clarity on how the ECF transition would work. Thompson said the ECF will be discontinued in the spring and replaced by the local $12.50 fund. The chair read the resolution on the floor and, after a roll call, announced the resolution passed 15–1.
The resolution language as read ties the surcharge to the statutory authority noted in TCA 40-3-106. The transcript does not record a roll-call tally in the same segment for a companion resolution that referenced the $12.50 charge for the public defender; commissioners read the similar public defender resolution and asked for a vote, but a recorded tally for that separate resolution does not appear in the provided record.
What’s next: the county will implement the surcharge through the clerk’s office and set up the new fund; Thompson said he envisions using proceeds for staffing and locally directed programs but noted the timeline and scale of hiring depend on actual collections.
