By Rob Ollikainen
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Clallam County lawmakers voted 2-1 to approve a 20 cents per month phone tax increase to support enhanced 9-1-1 services.
Commissioners Mike Doherty and Steve Tharinger voted Tuesday to approve an ordinance that increases the excise tax on land lines and cell phone from 50 cents to 70 cents — and begins a 70-cent tax on interconnected voice-over-Internet-protocol service lines that are not currently subject to the excise tax.
Commissioner Mike Chapman voted against it.
“It’s not fair to the public,” he said.
The tax will yield an estimated $188,000 revenue for Peninsula Communications — or PenCom — the dispatch center for emergency service agencies throughout Clallam County.
PenCom, which is operated by the Port Angeles Police Department, receives funding from the 18 emergency service agencies that use it.
The tax would add $2.40 annually for each land line and cell phone, and $8.40 annually for each voice-over-Internet line, for both residences and businesses.
“That increase is intended to allow PenCom, or dispatch centers around the state, to move forward with Next Generation 9-1-1,” Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher said during a one-hour hearing on the ordinance.
The federal Department of Transportation’s ITS program created the Next Generation 9-1-1 Initiative for public emergency communications services in a wireless mobile society.
Jefferson County
Jefferson County commissioners will conduct a public hearing on the phone excise tax at 10:15 a.m. Oct. 11 in their meeting room in the county courthouse at 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.
After the hearing, the commissioners could approve the collection of the excise tax beginning Jan. 1.
Clallam County’s passage of the tax hike prevented a $68,000 penalty built into state legislation that was approved earlier this year.
Any county that fails to approve the tax increase will be penalized by losing state funds, beginning the first of the year.
“Many commissioners are upset that the Legislature is in essence holding them hostage,” Chapman said.
“I actually predict a lot of counties won’t pass the tax.”
The same state legislation also raises the state’s share of the tax from 20 cents to 25 cents per month, effective Jan. 1.
“My concern is that technology will pass our dispatch center by if we don’t do what we need to do to stay current,” Gallagher said before the vote.
Clallam County commissioners had the authority to raise the tax.
Counties that don’t increase the tax become ineligible for statewide services that include the 9-1-1 database and network, language line services, training through the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission and training on telephone systems set up for people who are deaf, Gallagher had said.
“There’s kind of a carrot involved here,” Doherty said.
To avoid any interruption in state funding, the measure had to be approved by the end of October. Ineligibility for state funds would have started Jan. 1.
User fees unchanged
Meanwhile, user fees for the law enforcement agencies that contract with PenCom will remain the same until 2012.
“We know that we can apply approximately $100,000 from reserves to the PenCom budget and maintain user fee stability through next year,” Gallagher said.
The Port Angeles and Sequim city councils approved resolutions urging the commissioners to enact the tax.
Port Angeles City Council member Cherie Kidd voted against it, saying she preferred cutting PenCom’s budget to raising taxes.
County commissioners had expressed similar concerns to Kidd’s, saying they were looking for greater efficiency and potential budget cuts.
Tharinger said he would like to see the agencies that use PenCom “have a voice” in the dispatch center’s budget. PenCom’s advisory board has no budgetary authority.
Cost curve too high
Chapman said PenCom’s cost curve is “unsustainable” and the dispatch center has had three major tax increases in less than a decade.
Like his colleagues who voted for the ordinance, Chapman said the PenCom advisory board should have “some authority so they can control their costs.”
“All these other local governments have frozen positions or facing impending layoffs,” Chapman said.
“I’ve seen no reduction in staff for PenCom. It’s the only one.”
Tharinger shared Chapman’s concerns about PenCom’s long-term personnel costs.
Doherty said Clallam County is “a bit of a leader in interoperable communications,” and passing the tax “gives us a leg up, not only for the public safety of our citizens, but also the chance to get some outside money, whether it’s Homeland Security through multi-jurisdictional cooperative agreements or some other way.”
Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers said $20,000 has been trimmed from PenCom’s 2011 budget, which will be finalized in December. The 2010 PenCom budget is $2,182,764.
Nine of the 39 counties in Washington have passed the tax, Gallagher said.
“Jefferson County will not be considering this increase until Oct. 11,” he said.
“Kitsap County expects to pass this in a meeting this afternoon,” he said Tuesday.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Paige Dickerson contributed to this report.
