Southeast Michigan law enforcement, Detroit City officials, and some Michigan lawmakers called Monday for the passage of bills to create a new public safety and violence prevention fund. They spoke during a roundtable event in Detroit.

The bipartisan sponsored bills would take a portion of sales tax money and put it toward communities for violence reduction goals.

Package co-sponsor state Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) said police and community violence intervention groups urgently need that money.

“The longer we wait, the more likely homicides and people will die. It’s that simple. We give the folks that are in this room the money they need, our CVI groups here, they’re going to disrupt the crime. We give the money to our cops over here, they’re going to disrupt the crimes, they’re going to make sure neighborhoods are safe,” Farhat said.

Republican Michigan House leadership says it plans to vote on the bills next month and send the package over to the Democratic-led Michigan Senate.

The Senate OK’d an earlier version of the bills last legislative term with only Democratic support. But it’s unclear how that chamber would react to the current version of the package.

The Senate version from the previous term would have put more money toward the state health department for health and community intervention-based approaches to violence prevention.

Meanwhile, the current version would provide a smaller portion of fund money for those health department grants. Instead, it would ensure more money goes toward local law enforcement.

The package would also loop in county sheriff’s departments as recipients of funds too. Farhat and other package supporters said Monday that they’ve only made the legislation better.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who helped pitch the idea to lawmakers originally, said he doesn’t think there’s going to be a problem with the Senate this time around.

“We should not be setting this up as House versus Senate. The Senate already voted for this. And so, this is a bigger and broader package,” Duggan said. “The new package will be more appealing than last year’s package.”

Another key difference between last year’s and the current bills is the amount of overall money that would go to the fund itself. Whereas the fund would previously be capped at $75 million, this year’s bills would base the fund balance on overall sales tax revenue.

Duggan, who’s running as an independent candidate for governor despite spending years as a mainstay in Democratic circles, praised Republicans for their work on the package.

“This is my first time proposing money and the Republicans wanting to spend more than I propose, so I kind of like this,” Duggan said.

The increased dependence on sales tax revenue, however, raises questions over how lawmakers plan on accounting for that new spending. Especially as Republicans are also promoting a roads plan that would also draw upon sales tax revenue.

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) said budget cuts would pay for roads and the violence prevention fund.

“They capped it last session at $75 million. We want to actually dedicate the full amount that represents that and we can fit those two things together so we’re going to set priorities,” Hall said.

Other notables in attendance Monday included Detroit Police chief Todd Bettison, state Representatives Mike Harris (R-Waterford), Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit), Mark Tisdel (R-Rochester Hills), Ron Robinson (R-Utica), Donni Steele (R-Orion Twp) and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.