The increase would come from higher phone surcharges.
Appropriately called House Bill 911, the proposed legislation calls for increasing surcharges on all landline and mobile phone bills in Pennsylvania to a flat $1.65 per phone bill.
Funds would be channeled through the state and distributed to counties quarterly on a formula basis. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency would retain a 2 percent administrative fee.
Currently, Lawrence County residents pay the maximum — $1.50 per landlines — and a dollar on their mobile phones.
Statewide, the existing landline fee ranges from $1 to $1.50 depending on the county.
Everyone in the state would pay the $1.65 upon enactment of the bill, which would reauthorize the funding for county 911 systems when the state’s 25-year-old public safety emergency telephone act expires on June 30.
The bill was reported out of the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee yesterday and sent to the full House for consideration. Sainato is minority chairman of the committee.
“There will be some changes made,” he said. “We’ve had all the stakeholders involved.”
The bill calls for establishment of a 911 board of professionally competent state, county and provider interests and General Assembly members. The board would have planning approval, funding disbursement and funding accountability in an advisory capacity to PEMA.
PEMA and the 911 board would be required to develop state-of-the-art standards for 911 systems.
With advancements in technology in the past 25 years, 911 operating costs have exceeded revenues that counties receive from phone charges, Lawrence County administrator James Gagliano explained at a commissioners meeting in February. He pointed out that fees the county collects now cover only about half of the 911 operational costs.
The new bill would take into account updated technology such as voice over Internet, cell phones and all phases of phone and data communication. The original legislation covered landline phones primarily.
“We need to generate the extra money in order to prepare for the second generation of 911 technology,” Sainato said.
The original 911 law was set to expire June 30, 2014, but was extended for a year.
“We’re trying to come up with a plan that’s fair to everybody, but our most important thing is public safety,” Sainato said.
Lawrence County is in the midst of building a new public safety building, which includes an updated 911 center and radio communication system.
©2015 New Castle News (New Castle, Pa.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
