Cell phone fees could increase to help Oklahoma 911 centers
Published 8:15 am Tuesday, March 15, 2016
- Cell phone fees could increase to help Oklahoma 911 centers
OKLAHOMA CITY — A rural Oklahoma lawmaker wants to raise the cost of owning a cell phone $3 a year to help keep rural 911 dispatch centers open.
Cell phone owners pay $6 a year for 911 services through mandatory, 50-cent fees tacked onto each month’s bill. Rep. Josh Cockcroft, R-Wanette, wants to raise that another 25 cents per month.
Without the money, which Cockcroft said will raise 911 fee collections to $29 million per year, several of Oklahoma’s 144 dispatch centers may close.
Use of landline telephones has dropped 45 percent in the past decade, eroding support for rural 911 services.
The centers depend on fees paid by telephone customers, including cell phone users who sign service agreements in a 911 center’s jurisdiction.
That arrangement means monthly fees paid by rural cell phone users, in some cases, bolster 911 service in communities hundreds of miles away — where they signed the initial agreement.
As money for 911 centers dries up, Cockcroft said cities and counties pick up the difference — as much as 40 to 60 percent of a center’s cost.
That’s why he’s also proposes an overhaul of the 911 system. In addition to hiking the surcharges, he wants to change the law so that monthly fees are distributed based on where consumers live, not where they ordered a phone.
He also wants better oversight over how money from 911 fees is spent.
The latter is a sticking point for opponents of his proposal, who say the state has no idea how much money the fees now generate and no indication of how they’re spent.
Those skeptics question why Oklahomans should pay more.
“Obviously I’m not opposed to it if you show why you need it,” said Rep. Bobby Cleveland, R-Slaughterville. “They never showed why the need it, and just to say they need a price increase is not good enough.”
While Oklahoma mandates collection of a 911 surcharge from cell phone accounts, the state does little to oversee over the money.
Cell phone providers collect the fees, now 50 cents per month per account, and send the money to 11 regional planning districts or, in some cases, directly to counties, according to the state Tax Commission.
One such regional group, the Indian Nations Council of Governments, estimates Oklahomans have about 3 million wireless accounts.
That suggests the state raises $18 million per year in 911 fees, excluding surcharges for prepaid cell phones, which take in about $3.9 million annually. Those collections are tracked by the Tax Commission.
Simply increasing the monthly fee, Cockcroft said, will increase the total to about $29 million a year, including revenue generated by the prepaid cell phones.
Cockcroft admits there are few requirements on 911 centers to explain how they spend the money, even as telecommunication companies ask lawmakers for assurance it’s “actually being used right.”
His measure proposes having the Tax Commission collect all 911 fees.
In the meantime, Cockcroft said he’s focused on ensuring that all 911 dispatch centers stay open.
“This is, at least, going to give a temporary solution to keep everybody afloat until the leadership part of this bill is going to kick in and find ways that we can save some of that money,” he said.
Next year, Cockcroft said lawmakers must start some tough conversations about how the money is spent and possibly make some tough calls, such as consolidating 911 centers.
Gene Wallace, executive director of the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma, acknowledged that rural 911 centers supported by surcharges on landline accounts “without a doubt … probably need more money.”
Still, he said 911 service is a “very complex problem.”
Some 911 centers, without the fee hike, cannot provide the same level of services, he said.
He noted the frustration of rural 911 centers that see fees collected locally, by law, leave those areas and support 911 centers elsewhere.
County officials recognize a need for more money for 911 service, he said. “I think the only thing in debate is who gets the revenue.”
Janelle Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jstecklein@cnhi.com.