A few weeks ago, we ran an article on legislation that would provide cities with a new revenue source to hire additional officers. Under SB 5841, local governments could implement a sales tax to fund additional law enforcement officers. We want to clarify that this tax is a credit against the state sales tax and not an actual tax increase. We apologize for any confusion.

Per the bill, cities could use the one-tenth of one percent sales tax for:

• Employing additional commissioned law enforcement officers; or
• If the jurisdiction already has more police per capita than the national average, the city must use the funds for criminal justice purposes.

Additionally, the bill requires the Criminal Justice Training Commission to hold at least 25 basic law enforcement training classes each fiscal year.

SB 5841 received a public hearing last week and now awaits executive action in the Senate Ways & means Committee.