A task force designed to strengthen support for local law enforcement officers has come back with 17 recommendations. The Compensation of Police and Sheriffs (COPS) Task Force was appointed last spring by Lt. Governor Casey Cagle to study the salaries and compensation of Georgia’s local law enforcement officers and jailers, and was made up of legislative leaders, police officers, sheriffs, city and county officials.
Many recommendations focused on the Peace Officers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund (POAB) including: work to make the POAB fund more fiscally sustainable in order to allow county jail officers to participate and save for retirement, and ask POAB to perform a study to determine whether required monthly contributions to the Peace Officers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund should be increased (this would require legislation). The report also stated “the issue of decreased revenue from fine add-ons should be addressed by requiring all Pretrial Diversion Programs in the state to include add-ons that contribute directly to the POAB and the Peace Officer. Legislation will be proposed in January 2018.”
“Every day, officers across our state accept each call they receive with humility and a selfless commitment to the communities they serve,” said Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese. “I look forward to the continued work of the COPS Task Force as we unite behind these recommendations and remain engaged until we fully compensate the individuals who put their lives on the line defending their fellow Georgians.”
The task force held meetings at the Capitol, and also participated in the annual conventions for the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), the Georgia Sheriff’s Association and the Georgia Association of Police Chiefs.
According to the report, members of the task force will propose legislation to amend the Department of Community Affairs requirements for Qualified Local Government Status to require local to:
● Perform wage and compensation evaluations of their own, and surrounding counties at least every five years.
● Adopt and maintain a compensation pay scale for their local law enforcement officers consisting of pay grades and pay steps with appropriate ranges of salaries for each category based on merit, training, longevity, and local demographics. Reporting of this information to DCA will be required.
● Appropriate a minimum of $7 million in state funds (to be increased if greater need is established) to be available for grants to assist local governments and sheriff’s offices with increased officer compensation.
The report also recommends a study of potential tax exemptions or credits for local law enforcement officers in the state to increase compensation. It further recommends:
● The Georgia Municipal Association and the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia should study the impact of allowing local governments to channel a percentage of revenue received from local option sales taxes to law enforcement agencies or provide more flexibility with existing insurance premium revenue collected by local governments.
● GMA and ACCG should study the cost and impact of creating a transferrable retirement system for all certified local law enforcement personnel as well as jail and correctional staff. It is recommended that this be done in cooperation with the Peace Officers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund (POAB).
Republican candidate for governor Michael Williams, though, takes issue with Cagle’s “proposed tax increase on Georgia auto insurance rates to fund a much-needed law enforcement pay raise.” A Williams statement emailed to InsiderAdvantage says:
“Campaign Casey is officially off his rocker. He convened a ‘task force’ of career politicians with the exception of a handful of law enforcement officers he tacked on for political cover to propose massive tax increases. He wasted months holding ‘task force meetings’ and thousands of taxpayer dollars spent only to conclude we should raise taxes on struggling Georgia families. His proposal even raises taxes on the very law enforcement officers he claims to be helping by raising their family auto insurance rates, allowing new Local Option Sales Taxes and other new regulations and bureaucracy.”
“Even more reprehensible,” Williams concludes, “his proposal does not guarantee law enforcement officers would receive a penny from the new proposed taxes! As a CPA, I am blown away. As someone fighting to give these struggling families the help they need, I’m disgusted. We’re 5 days away from Christmas and we have 3,200 law enforcement officers on food stamps, many with no way to afford the BB gun or the doll house they desperately want to give their children on Christmas morning. What the hell are we doing if we don’t fix this immediately – no strings attached!”
