Legislation may soon be on its way to change how Pennsylvania counties fund its emergency dispatch centers.
The Schuylkill County commissioners finalized a budget resolution Wednesday drawing about $350,000 from a reserve account within the communications department to pay operational costs for the second half of the fiscal year after state funding fell short of projections.
"We are limited as to what we can do because we can only do what the law allows us to do," Paul Buber, county finance director, said Monday.
The communications center is funded on surcharges placed on phone calls. The Public Safety and Emergency Telephone Act of 1990 put a fee on every landline phone. The law was updated in 2004 to include wireless calls and Voice over Internet Protocol.
Landline calls carry a $1.25 fee while wireless and VoIP calls are $1. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency collects wireless fees from service providers and then distributes that revenue to the counties. Fees have not changed since 2004.
"The costs are going up, but revenue has not," Scott Krater, county communications director, said Tuesday.
It cost $5,172,178 to operate the communications center this year, according to the 2014 budget. That total also includes $940,025 in principal and interest payments on the 2012 county bond used to pay for the narrowbanding project.
Landline fees were projected to pay for $845,675, or 16.3 percent of the costs, while wireless fees would account for $1,969,797, or 38 percent. The county general fund would then be used for the remaining $2,356,706, or 45.7 percent.
However, wireless fees from PEMA were about $600,000 short of that projection. The county operates on a different fiscal year than the state, so it needed to draw from a reserve fund to make up about half of that for the remaining six months of operation in 2014 and another $300,000 in the 2015 budget.
"We are looking at a couple different options, but we are waiting until we address the 2015 budget," Buber said.
Krater said a new bill was drafted earlier this year that charged a $1.60 fee on all calls. The surcharge can also be adjusted for inflation every few years, Krater said.
The proposal also had PEMA distribute fees differently. There would be an equal share, plus additional money based on population.
When the proposed legislation did not make it to the voting stage, the current law was extended another year until June 2015.
Krater said the County Commissioners Association and the Pennsylvania Association of Public Safety Communications have been involved in drafting the legislation.
"There have been meetings since January," Krater said. "Then at the end of august they will start again."
After adjusting state funding, Krater said communication centers throughout the state will then look to further reduce costs by regionalizing new equipment. Krater said computerized dispatch and telephone systems are some of the things that may eventually be shared by a few communication centers in the northeast.
"The state wants to see those types of programs for obvious reasons," Krater said. "It saves everyone money."