From the Jeffersonville News and Tribune:
Of all the items on your cellphone or landline bill, you may not have noticed the little surcharge to pay for 911 services.
But on July 1, that little surcharge is set to change, as part of a larger effort to stabilize the wobbly source of funding for emergency dispatch services.
Depending on where you live, the surcharge on your landline bill could go up or down by a dollar or two. For contract cellphones users across the state, it’s set to go from 50 cents to 90 cents. Prepaid cellphone users will pay 50 cents each time minutes are added.
It may sound like nickel-and-dime stuff. But it should add up to about $63 million in revenues for the 911 emergency dispatch centers around the state.
The change comes from a new law, effective July 1, that puts the state in control of collecting and distributing the 911 fees paid by telephone users.
Until now, Indiana has had a fractured system of funding: For more than 30 years, counties have set their own surcharge rates on landlines to fund their emergency dispatch centers. The monthly rates now vary from county to county, from 32 cents to $3.
The problem, though, is that over the last decade, more than 1 million Hoosiers have dropped their landlines to switch to cellphones.
That’s cost counties millions of dollars in revenues — some much more than others — and it’s forced some counties to patch the fiscal holes with dollars from their general fund.
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The law also sets up a new state board to distribute the money to counties. That board has the authority to raise the surcharge fees by 10 cents every year with State Budget Committee approval.
See the full story here:
http://newsandtribune.com/statenews/x1647299689/Phone-bills-will-soon-show-changes-in-911-fees
