STATE RAIDS ON WIRELESS E911 FUNDS MAY BE HEATING UP AGAIN
The issue of state govts. diverting money from wireless E911 funds for other state purposes may be heating up again as states try to balance their 2004 budgets. The latest attempt is in the form of Mich. legislation to authorize a 2nd diversion of wireless E911 funds this fiscal year. Stopping such draws may be hard at the state level. A state bill in N.Y. to ban such diversions has remained stuck in the legislature despite a seemingly strong case for passage.
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Police and public safety officials in Mich. accused the legislature of looting the wireless E911 fund to pay off bond debt on a statewide public safety radio communications system. Pending legislation (SB-1144/HB-5779) would authorize a $6 million draw from the state wireless E911 fund to pay the radio system bonds, on top of a $12 million draw made last month for the same purpose, pursuant to legislation signed early this year.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) defended her approval of the $12 million draw, saying it was the product of an agreement with the legislature to help ease the state’s yawning budget deficit. The aqreement was made afetr an audit found there was $43 million in the fund, and amount well above projected 2004 spending. She said the radio system is as much a public safety matter as wireless E911.
Mich. imposes a 52-cent monthly fee on wireless bills, with half the money earmarked for local govts. and half to reimburse wireless carriers for their E911 implementation costs. But Paul Rogers, Eaton County central 911 dispatch dir. and former chmn. of the Mich. Emergency Telephone Service Committee, said the state legislature “saw fit to raid the fund once and will be doing it again. That’s not what the fee is being collected for.”
Patricia Coates, pres. of Mich. Public Safety Communications Officials, said the appearance of a surplus in the E911 fund is deceiving: “If you spend it now [on non- E911 projects] there’s nothing to draw on and the companies and their customers will have to finance the upgrades -- again.” The money is supposed to advance Mich. to the Phase II wireless E911 capability that allows a caller to be located to within a few hundred feet. Currently, only 5 of the 83 counties in Mich. have Phase II wireless location capability.
To date, 39 states plus D.C. have implemented wireless E-911 surcharges that range between 5 cents and $1.50 monthly. According to figures from the U.S. Gen. Accounting Office, there are about 5,200 primary and 900 secondary public safety answering points that would have to be equipped for wireless phase 2 E911. The GAO said that as of the end of 2003, about 65% of those facilities had the Phase 1 wireless location ability but only 18% had the more-advanced Phase II capabilities.
Halting raids on E911 funds by state action may be difficult. In N.Y., state legislation introduced last year to ban any more diversions from the E911 fund remains bottled up in a state Senate committee although it passed the House last year. The legislation (SB-2973/AB-3911) would reform the process for disbursing E911 funds and required all collected funds be used for wireless E911 deployment.
The House-passed measure failed to advance in the Senate despite an April 2003 report by the state comptroller saying that roughly 40% of the funds generated from the state’s $1.20 E911 surcharge were going to general state expenses and the remaining $85 million was being split between E911 and other public safety purposes. That report followed a Jan. 2003 incident in which 4 youths drowned in a winter boating accident in Long Island Sound. The tragedy was blamed in part on dispatchers’ inability to locate them on the frigid water, despite their calls on their cellphones.
The state this year is distributing $51.3 million to N.Y. localities for wireless E911 implementation, and officials say they intend to have all counties compliant with the Phase II standard as quickly as practicable. About 60% of the state’s counties have yet to install Phase II capabilities.
Pending bills in the U.S. House and Senate would prohibit states from diverting E911 funds to other purposes, but their prospects for passage are uncertain. Last year saw moves in 13 states to divert wireless E911 money to other purposes, and the Mich. moves this year show the idea isn’t dead. Some of the larger 2003 diversions included: Cal., $53 million; Rhode Island, $10 million; Ore. $9 million; Wash., $6 million; and Ariz., $5 million.