PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County commissioners are considering approving later this month an increase in the telephone excise tax for land lines and cell phones.
The estimated $188,000 annual revenue from the 20-cent-per-month increase — and a new 70-cent tax on interconnected voice-over-Internet-protocol service lines, which are not now subject to the excise tax — would go toward modernizing the county’s 9-1-1 emergency dispatch system to keep up with technology, said Port Angeles Chief of Police Terry Gallagher.
“Essentially, the state is going to move forward with Next Generation 9-1-1, [a federal initiative] and the Legislature has offered this tax as one way to generate revenue to fund our effort to move down that road with them,” Gallagher told the three county commissioners last week.
The commissioners Tuesday set a Sept. 28 public hearing on a proposed resolution to increase the tax.
The hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the commissioners’ board room (160) on the main level of the county courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
The Port Angeles Police Department operates Peninsula Communications — or PenCom — the dispatch center for emergency service agencies throughout Clallam County.
From all agencies
The agency receives funding from all of the emergency service agencies throughout Clallam County, but the county commissioners are the ones who are granted the authority to raise the tax.
The tax would add $2.40 annually to the taxes for each land line and cell phone, and $8.40 annually for each voice-over-Internet line, for both residences and businesses.
Passage of the tax hike also would prevent a penalty built into state legislation passed earlier this year.
Counties that do not 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 said.
If PenCom had to pay for those state services the amount would be about $68,000 per year, Gallagher said.
“If the commissioners pass this tax it could have a potential fiscal impact bringing money into PenCom and if they don’t enact the tax it could have an impact,” Gallagher said.
Ineligibility for state funds would begin Jan. 1.
Notice of approval of the tax hike must be provided 60 days before it is enacted.
To avoid any interruption in state funding, the measure would have to be approved by the end of October.
Jefferson County Administrator Philip Morley said commissioners there will be presented with a similar resolution within a month.
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.
PA council supports tax
The Port Angeles City Council approved in a 6-1 vote earlier this month a resolution urging the three county commissioners to enact the tax.
Council member Cherie Kidd voted against it, saying she preferred cutting PenCom’s budget to raising taxes.
The 2010 PenCom budget is $2,182,764.
Part of Kidd’s concern was that she expected to see an expected rise in user fees, effective Jan. 1.
Such fees are charged individual agencies, not individuals, according to the number of calls they receive.
But Gallagher said Tuesday that the goal is to stabilize user fees through 2011, keeping them at the present rate through then.
That can be accomplished, Gallagher said, with passage of the excise tax hike and “nominal use of reserves.”
County commissioners had expressed similar concerns to Kidd’s, saying they were looking for greater efficiency and potential budget cuts.
Budget cuts
Gallagher said Tuesday that some $20,000 has been trimmed so far from the 2011 budget.
The budget will be finalized in December.
County Commissioner Steve Tharinger said there was also some concern that some state funding — the amount is unknown right now — might be lost because if the tax rate is raised, the county becomes ineligible for certain state 9-1-1 funding.
Gallagher acknowledged that currently that was a concern.
“But they are working on revising the [Washington Administrative Code] that causes that to be a problem, because losing funding was not the intention of the bill that allowed this tax increase.”
The State Enhanced 9-1-1 Advisory Committee has a subcommittee working to rework the WAC to make sure that counties are not penalized for enacting the tax, Gallagher said.
The same state legislation also raises the state’s share from 20 cents to 25 cents per month, effective Jan. 1.
Much of the additional revenue would be used to upgrade PenCom’s system to get more information from voice-over-Internet-protocol phones, Gallagher said.
Currently PenCom can accept such calls, but does not get location information as it does from cell phones and land lines.
“We have got to stay caught up with technology,” Gallagher said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen contributed to this story.
