Van Buren County Commissioners unanimously approved a change Monday night that will replace a $75 court cost on certain economic crimes with a $12.50 fee applied across a broader range of criminal cases.
District Attorney General Matt Colvard, who serves Van Buren and Warren Counties, asked commissioners to approve the change from the Economic Crime Fund to what is known as the 12-50 Fund.
“ECF funds are collected when people plead guilty or are found guilty of an economic crime, a theft, worthless checks, something of that effect,” Colvard said. “When that money is collected, once we have it, we can only use it to fight economic crimes.”
Colvard said the alternative authorized by the Tennessee Legislature assesses $12.50 when someone pleads guilty, is found guilty or agrees to pay court costs in exchange for not being prosecuted. Colvard said the existing fund limits both where the money comes from and how his office can use it.
“So what it does is it’s $12.50 basically on everybody instead of $75 on those that commit economic crimes,” Colvard said. “This 12-50 can be used for anything that furthers public safety by our office.”
Colvard said the District Attorney’s Office cannot collect money through both funding mechanisms. Adoption of the new system means collections for the Economic Crime Fund will stop and the fund will eventually be replaced by the 12-50 Fund.
Colvard said another problem with the existing system is collecting the $75 assessment from defendants convicted of economic crimes.
“Plus, checks are going away,” Colvard said. “I mean, it was originally ECF was passed as a way of countering worthless checks. Well, everybody’s going electronic so there’s not as many paper checks out there anymore anyway.”
Colvard said the new fund gives the District Attorney’s Office greater flexibility in how the revenue can be used for public safety.
“It doesn’t have to be for an economic crime as long as we can show that it’s for public safety, then we can spend it to that effect, to that end,” Colvard said.
All nine commissioners present voted in favor of the resolution.
In other business, the commission approved a $48,264.01 budget amendment for the School Resource Officer program to replace returned state grant funds and authorized a $7,000 amendment from inmate telephone service funds to provide $200 employee gift cards and Christmas door prizes for the Sheriff’s Department.