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The bill would increase revenue from 9-1-1 emergency service fees to regions that create an emergency communication district. In addition, there would be costs to form an emergency communication district; however, the fiscal impact is not anticipated to be significant.Regions that meet the provisions of the bill would establish a regional emergency communication district, which would result in those regions opting to no longer collect fees in order to participate in the state-run 9-1-1 system.
SB 1108 would
authorize a county or municipality in a region with a population of at less
than 1.5 million and composed of counties and municipalities currently
operating a 9-1-1 system through a regional planning commission (RPC) to create
a regional emergency communication district.The district would be governed by a
board of managers with certain powers and duties. The bill sets out provisions
relating to the implementation of a 9-1-1 computerized system and sets out the
typical 9-1-1 standards for that district. The board would impose a 9-1-1
service fee which may not exceed 50 cents/line/month on service users in the
district.
SB 1108 would result
in a change in how 911 service tax or fees are collected. The provisions of SB
1108 would allow 911 Emergency Service Districts to operate on a regional basis
to increase efficiency, while charging a capped per line fee to better
distribute emergency services at the local/regional level. While this technically
creates a new special purpose district, the practical reality is that it swaps
one taxing special purpose district for another local option. For that reason,
we view this as an administrative bill, having no real connection to our
liberty principles.