If you’ve ever dialed 911, you know how important these services are to our safety and quality of life.
The county’s Emergency Communications (E-911) center is a critical link between our residents and the many public safety agencies that serve them. Our nationally-accredited E-911 center maintains a list of core values it strives to accomplish every day — professionalism, integrity, service, respect, dignity, partnerships and accountability. These values guide a mission to save lives, protect property and assist the public in times of need, while guaranteeing the safety of first responders.
Like almost everything in government, the cost of providing these invaluable services can be staggering — more than $22 million a year, in fact. Technology upgrades and interoperability requirements seem insatiable and never-ending. Thankfully, the county leverages many opportunities for state and federal grants to offset certain operating and maintenance expenses.
Another key source of E-911 funding is the local portion ($0.30) of the $1.50 monthly surcharge collected by New York state on landlines and traditional cell phone contracts. While I’m not sure what happens with the state’s portion of the surcharge, the law dictates that 100 percent of the county’s portion is devoted to E-911, reducing the local cost of E-911 by about 15 percent.
Over the last decade, many residents have replaced traditional landlines with pre-paid and no-contract cell phones, which are not subject to the E-911 surcharge. This change in how people communicate — 38 percent of all cell phones are now prepaid — has resulted in a decrease in surcharge revenue and an increasing financial burden to County taxpayers.
At our August session, I sponsored a new local law that makes prepaid and no-contract phones subject to the county’s portion of the state’s surcharge. The law was adopted and the surcharge will be applied fairly and equitably to all beneficiaries of E-911 services. I’m never one for more taxes and fees, but these changes simply ensure everyone is paying their fair share, and only their fair share, for a vital service to our community.
Brian May represents the First District, which includes the town of Lysander and the western portion of the town of Clay.
