Committee hears bill to redirect State Patrol fine revenue to state treasury; members ask for accounting and take no final vote

Chairman McDonald presented HB1412 as a measure to provide stable support for the Georgia State Patrol by directing 70% of applicable traffic fines generated by DPS troopers to the state general fund and requiring jurisdictions to report revenue generated by troopers. He characterized the change as a transparency and fairness measure so the state can "reinvest in the very agency that generates it."

Witnesses who testified cautioned against the proposed redistribution without fuller accounting. Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriff's Association, said county jails and local courts absorb many related costs—housing, medical and indigent-defense expenses—and warned the shift would reduce funds counties currently use to offset those unavoidable charges. Butch Ayers of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police emphasized that local agencies perform a large share of interstate crash and traffic work; he and Norris urged careful study of operational impacts and called for better transparency of where citation revenues are generated and spent. Vivian Ernstus of ACCG reiterated that many local administrative and court costs tied to citations are funded by counties and cities.

Committee members probed the 70/30 split (Chairman McDonald said he would consider a 50/50 compromise), asked for clearer data and accounting of citation revenue flows, and discussed limiting any shift to specific citation types. The committee did not take a final vote and the sponsor said he would continue discussions with sheriffs, chiefs and county leaders about implementation and transparency details. The panel adjourned without action on HB1412.