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Phone surcharge would increase to support 911 under bill advancing in Legislature [1]

['Joshua Haiar', 'More From Author', '- January']

Date: 2024-01 

PIERRE — A committee of state lawmakers endorsed a bill Tuesday to increase funding for 911 call centers by raising phone customers’ monthly surcharge from $1.25 to $2 per line.

The House Taxation Committee approved the bill 9-4, sending it to the full House of Representatives.

The increase would be the first since 2012. Troy VanDusen, director of Watertown’s regional 911 center, told lawmakers the funding gap between the current surcharge and the costs of running 911 centers “continues to widen, leaving us with the question of how much longer we can sustain our operations.”

Under current law, a uniform monthly surcharge of $1.25 is imposed per cell phone and landline, with a cap of 100 lines per customer account each month.

The surcharge is collected by phone companies, which then gives the revenue to the state, which keeps some to fund its statewide 911 coordination efforts and gives the rest to the counties for their 911 call centers. The state kept about $2.8 million of the approximately $12.8 million raised by the surcharge during the 2023 fiscal year.

At $2 per month, that revenue stream would jump to about $20 million total.

Prepaid wireless telecommunications services are exempt from the surcharge. They are assessed a separate 2% surcharge on each retail transaction. Bill proponents say that’s not being changed, because it’s already tethered to inflation.

Multiple law enforcement officials testified for increased funding to ensure the 911 system’s efficiency and reliability. The proposed hike to $2, they argued, is crucial for addressing the rising operational costs and technological upgrades necessary for maintaining a robust emergency response system.

Opponents of the bill expressed concerns about the additional financial burden on consumers and businesses, particularly those with multiple lines. A family with five lines would go from paying $6.25 per month to $10.

One opponent, Rep. Aaron Aylward, R-Harrisburg, later told South Dakota Searchlight “the issue is an overall county funding problem, and I don’t agree with some of these smaller increases here and there with various things.”

“I agree that we need to fund the counties and I believe the proper way to do that is to start increasing the county funding through appropriations,” Aylward said.

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[1] Url: https://southdakotasearchlight.com/briefs/phone-surcharge-would-increase-to-support-911-under-bill-advancing-in-legislature/

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