HB 4606 — Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund (summary)
Status / procedural posture
- Introduced in the House May 23, 2023 (Rep. Alabas Farhat); tied to HB 4605 (sales tax deposit).
- Multiple House substitutes adopted (notably H‑19). Senate substitute (S‑2) passed the Senate 12/20/2024 and was returned to the House; packet shows the bill was “laid over one day under the rules.” The bills are tie‑barred (neither takes effect unless both enacted). Recent filings and referral activity occurred in 2025.
Purpose
- Establish a dedicated Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund (PSVPF) to finance public‑safety and community‑violence‑prevention activities and distribute a portion of state sales tax proceeds to local units and related programs.
Key provisions
- Creates the PSVPF within the Department of Treasury; Treasury directs investments; fund balances do not lapse to the General Fund.
- Funding source (tie to HB 4605): directs a portion of General Sales Tax receipts (commonly described as 1.5% of the portion taxed at 4%) into the PSVPF beginning with the 2024 fiscal year (HB 4605).
- Distribution schedule (varies by version — two principal approaches appear in committee/house and Senate substitutes):
- Allocations to DHHS and Crime Victim’s Rights Fund: commonly 6.5% to Department of Health and Human Services for a DHHS grant program (public‑health & community‑violence interventions) and 2% to the Crime Victim’s Rights Fund.
- Remainder distributed to local units: the balance is distributed (semiannually or monthly depending on version) to cities, villages, townships (and in some versions counties on behalf of townships) that provide or contract for police services, “at least proportional” to each unit’s average share of statewide reported violent crime (based on the 3 most recent Crime in Michigan reports). A per‑unit cap of 25% applies.
- Performance adjustment / reductions: provisions conditionally reduce distributions to local units that fail to achieve specified reductions in violent‑crime rates from a "base crime level." Exact thresholds and reduction percentages differ by version (e.g., earlier House text used 5%/10% reductions; Senate substitute uses smaller percentage targets and reductions and delays effective dates).
- Use limitations: fund distributions and DHHS grants must be used for operational or capital expenditures serving public safety and violence prevention; may not supplant recurring local public‑safety resources (except under defined revenue declines). Prohibits use to purchase tactical vehicles >15,000 lbs, facial recognition technology, and chemical weapons. Subgrants to other entities are permitted for allowable uses.
- Appropriation mechanics: annual executive budget must include an appropriation directing Treasury to distribute PSVPF monies; distributions are subject to appropriation.
Fiscal impact and implementation issues
- Estimated reduction in General Fund revenue and increased PSVPF receipts: roughly $106–111 million annually in early years (fiscal estimates vary by year and forecast). Example: ≈ $106.7M in FY 2023‑24 and $107.7M in FY 2024‑25 (per House Fiscal Agency analysis).
- Administrative impact: Treasury may need additional staff (FTE) and resources to calculate distributions, track eligibility, and reconcile crime statistics.
- Legal/technical ambiguities identified: undefined terms and calculation methods (e.g., “average share,” whether reductions are based on incident counts vs. per‑capita rates), reliance on crime reporting completeness and classification, and the fact that statutory direction to include an appropriation does not legally compel appropriation.
Who is affected
- State: Department of Treasury (administration, investment, distributions), DHHS (grant program administration), Crime Victim’s Rights Fund.
- Local governments: cities, villages, townships (and some counties) that provide or contract police services — recipients of the majority of the fund.
- Victims’ programs and community‑violence public‑health initiatives (via DHHS grants).
Key open items
- Final text differences between House and Senate substitutes (timing, performance targets, distribution cadence). The bill remains subject to reconciliation and further legislative action before becoming law.
