The Alabama County Commission Association (ACCA) is preparing to help sheriff’s offices across the state recoup lost funding in the wake of the recently passed “constitutional carry law.”

Alabama House Bill 262 will effectively remove the requirement for Alabama residents to purchase a permit in order to carry a firearm on their person, or in their vehicle, when the law goes into effect January 1. But, the Executive Director of the ACCA, Sonny Brasfield said that since the bill was signed by Governor Kay Ivey in March, local law enforcement departments have already seen a significant drop-off in revenue from the purchase of gun permits.

“Immediately, almost before the ink was dry on the legislation, our revenue began to go down,” Brasfield said.

According to Brasfield, statewide gun permit revenues are down an estimated 30% from this time last year, but several offices are experiencing higher percentages. Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry estimates his department has seen a 40% decrease this year. As of September, Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon estimated a 75% decrease.

Currently, revenue from gun permits is deposited directly into a discretionary fund for a local sheriff’s office to use for the purchase of anything from new vehicles and equipment, to extended education hours for deputies.

Brasfield said that with these decreases already becoming apparent before the law goes into effect, he is anticipating a statewide loss of around 50% by this time next year.

Provisions within the bill have set aside $5 million for next year and $2 million for each of the following two years that will be made available to departments who are able to show a loss in revenue. These funds would be sent to the local county commission, who would then allocate those funds for specific purchases.

While the ACCA has no current plans to recoup any revenue lost from this year, Brasfield said that he would like to see several changes made to ease the financial strain of sheriff’s offices moving forward. The first of which being how lost revenue is gauged. The law sets 2022 as the benchmark by which to judge any lost funding. With the current drops in revenue, Brasfield said that this would be an inaccurate presentation of how much funding a department has lost.

“The significant change is to go in and make the base year as 2021 rather that 2022,” Brasfield said.

The second item is the amount of funding set aside. Brasfield said that the ACCA is still collecting data from individual county commissions and sheriff’s offices, but is under the belief that the current allocated amounts are simply insufficient.

“We don’t think that $5 million will be sufficient to fully reimburse for the lost revenue in the coming year, and we certainly don’t think that $2 million will be enough for the following years,” Brasfield said.

With 67 counties in the state, if each office were to receive an equal amount of funding, they would receive $74,626 next year and $29,850 the following two years.

The Cullman County Sheriff’s Office was unable to provide an accurate estimate for the amount of annual funding it receives from the sale of gun permits by presstime.

Just last week the ACCA met with county commissions and sheriff’s offices from across the state to draft a proposal of changes that they plan to put before state lawmakers next year. Brasfield said that they will be finalizing this proposal after the holidays.