House Bill 283 will take money sitting in a Fund to Combat Violent Crimes and put it to use in actually fighting violent crime, which is what human trafficking is. The bill will authorize the yearly withdrawal of $100,000 from that fund and the transfer of it to the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council that was formed in 2014 to aide multijurisdictional coordination to fight this crime that often traverses multiple jurisdictions.
The Fund to Combat Violent Crimes is funded by a $15 penalty imposed on and collected from defendants for certain crimes or civil violations. The money within the Fund is divided between the Department of Safety and Homeland Security and local law-enforcement agencies for use in connection with initiatives to combat violent crime. No more than $4,250,000 may be deposited into the Fund. Any amount more than $4,250,000 reverts to the General Fund.
In recent fiscal years, the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes has reverted excess funds to the General Fund. Because of the new disbursement of $100,000 to the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council, this bill also increases the maximum amount of money that may be deposited into the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes by $100,000 to $4,350,000.
This bill also adds to existing reporting requirements for the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council that the Council document how it spends disbursements from the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes. The Council must also provide the report to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services.
| House Bill 283 Sponsors | Yes Votes | No Votes |
| K.Williams, Dorsey Walker, Baumbach, Brady, Griffith, Heffernan, Lambert, Longhurst, Ramone, M.Smith | ||
| Poore, Ennis, Gay, Walsh, Lawson, Lopez, Pettyjohn | ||
| Current Status: Out of Commitee |
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