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Commissioners support legislation to change funding

3 min read
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The Washington County commissioners have adopted a resolution supporting legislation that would change the way countywide 911 systems are funded.

Washington County taxpayers, according to the 2015 budget, are expected to contribute $800,000 to the 911 system, an increase of 14.3 percent from 2014. The infusion of cash from taxpayers has fluctuated between $500,000 and $800,000 over the past decade because the amount of 911 funding from landline telephones steadily decreased.

“I don’t know if there’s any county that’s going to have a self-sufficient 911 center under the current law,” Roger Metcalfe, county finance director, said Friday. “I’d be almost positive that there are none that would have their revenues exceed their expenditures. We’re seeing regular increases in personnel costs. Landline money is not coming in consistently.”

According to a draft prepared by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, the legislation would rewrite the 911 Public Safety Telephone Act, including a comprehensive revision of governance, accountability, technology references, distribution of fees and rate of fees.

Its intent is to recognize that the state and counties need to not just maintain current systems, but invest in the ability to respond in the future based on technology and citizens’ and corporate expectations.

The legislation removes three “silos” in the existing law that treat land ines, wireless, prepaid wireless and Voice over Internet Protocol phone systems as separate technologies for planning, funding and auditing.

According to the draft, the monthly subscriber rate would be set uniformly at $2, doubling the current $1 fee for wireless, prepaid wireless and VoIP. The current fee is between $1 and $1.50 for landlines, depending on a county’s classification. Washington, under state law, is a fourth-class county.

The measure would accommodate and encourage adaptation to next-generation technologies, such as text, video and social media, without restricting the law, and would allow adaptation to technologies that have not yet been identified. A 911 board would be given two years to develop and submit a report and recommendation on the impacts of current and anticipated technological and market changes on 911 service, including the structure and adequacy of the 911 surcharge and 911 fund.

Counties would retain the right to assure there is 911 service throughout their jurisdiction, and development, deployment, upgrade, maintenance and operation of the 911 systems would remain under local ownership and control.

With the end of the Emergency Telephone Act looming at the end of June, the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee last month held a public hearing to gather testimony on the “True Costs of E-911” in Pennsylvania, according to state Sen. Randy Vulakovich, committee chairman.

Those testifying included representatives from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, CCAP and a panel of officials from the Allegheny, Philadelphia, Tioga and Westmoreland county 911 centers.

“This committee certainly recognizes the costs of the service,” Vulakovich, a former municipal police officer, said in a news release. “Equipment must be constantly upgraded and personnel trained and compensated. We also know the value of the service in terms of public safety. We were also presented with several options as to how to ease the increasing financial burden being placed on counties across the commonwealth. We will take this information into consideration over the coming weeks and months as we work toward reauthorization of E-911.”

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