9-1-1 CHARGES H.B. 6070 (S-4): FLOOR SUMMARY
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House Bill 6070 (Substitute S-4 as passed by the House)
Sponsor: Representative Jeff Mayes
House Committee: Energy and Technology
Senate Committee: Homeland Security and Emerging Technologies

CONTENT
The bill would amend the Emergency 9-1-1 Service Enabling Act to do the following:

-- Delay the Act's February 28, 2009, sunset until December 31, 2014.
-- Revise deadlines for adjusting the amount and allocation of State 9-1-1 charges.
-- Limit the amount of a 9-1-1 charge that a county may assess, and apply the limits to proposed increases in existing approved county 9-1-1 charges.
-- Expand confidentiality provisions pertaining to information submitted to counties by service suppliers.
-- Require a county 9-1-1 charge to be used to fund only costs approved as allowable in a published report by the Emergency Telephone Service Committee (ETSC) before December 1, 2008, and require the ETSC to notify the Legislature at lest 90 days before modifying what constitutes an allowable cost.
-- Prohibit counties from levying a 9-1-1 charge after the Act's sunset, except to the extent required to pay any qualified obligations or satisfy a pledge.
-- Require a service supplier to make an annual accounting of the emergency telephone technical charges it collected, and adjust the charge if the accounting showed it to be insufficient or excessive.
Under the Act, a county board of commissioners may, by resolution, millage as otherwise allowed by law, with the approval of the voters in the county, or any combination of those methods, assess a county 9-1-1 charge. Under the bill, instead, a county board of commissioners could assess a county 9-1-1 charge to service users located within that county by one of the following methods:

-- Up to 42 cents per month by resolution.
-- Up to $3 per month with the approval of county voters.
-- Any combination of charges by resolution or with voter approval, up to $3 per month.


MCL 484.1401a et al. Legislative Analyst: Julie Cassidy

FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on the amount of funds raised by counties from 9-1-1 service user charges. Currently no county has established a charge that exceeds the proposed $3 limit on the county 9-1-1 charge (the highest being $2.52 per month). However, most counties have established monthly charges that do exceed $0.42, which, under the bill, would be the maximum amount a county could charge (via adoption of a resolution) without going through a voter approval process-a key change to the Act proposed by the bill. Counties with current monthly charges over $0.42 approved by resolution could maintain that level of assessment, but any future increases would be subject to the voter approval requirement.


Date Completed: 12-4-08 Fiscal Analyst: Bruce Baker

Analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent. hb6070/0708