CHARLESTON – Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, praised the Senate’s passage today of House Bill 2980, which in addition to modifying the process in which circuit clerks charge and collect fees in civil actions, creates the State Police Forensic Laboratory Fund.
The State Police Forensic Laboratory fund is a new special revenue account that is to be managed by the Superintendent of State Police and is available for the operations of the State Police Forensic Laboratory. Expenditures made from the fund must be for the operations of the lab. For each $15 fee collected from the new process outlined in House Bill 2980, $5 of the fee shall be directly deposited into the State Police Forensic Laboratory Fund.
“I’m proud that with this small step, we will be able to help direct some much-needed money directly to the State Police’s Forensic Laboratory to help them work through some of their backlog,” Senate President Carmichael said. “These men and women do tremendous jobs with extremely limited resources, and I’m proud of the efforts of House Judiciary Chairman John Shott in getting this Fund set up through his committee’s work. The Legislature could not be more supportive of our State Police, and we hope this fund helps put them on a better financial footing.”
The bill passed the House 89-7-4 on March 25. It passed the Senate 33-0-1 today.