Resistance to 911 Fee Diversion Regroups in 2 States, as FCC Ups Pressure

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly hasn't received a response to his Tuesday letter admonishing New York and six other states and territories that failed to respond to the FCC 911 report (see 1802200055), said O’Rielly aide Brooke Ericson Friday. Governors of Missouri, Montana, New York, Oklahoma, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands didn’t comment for this story. O’Rielly and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel urged a federal crackdown on state misuse of 911 fees, in a Feb. 9 opinion piece in The Hill (see 1802090019). Chairman Ajit Pai urged an end to “shameful diversion of 911 fees” in Feb. 16 remarks on the 50th anniversary of 911. “The persistence of this problem tells us that transparency isn’t enough to halt this practice of theft from the public safety community.”

Six states diverted nearly $129 million in 2016, or about 5 percent of total fees collected by the 46 states and two territories reporting in 2016, the FCC report said. That may appear less than the $220.3 million diverted in 2015, but 49 states and four territories reported that year (see 1701170051). New York, which didn’t report in 2016, diverted $77.3 million in 2015. “Sufficient public record information exists to support a finding that New York diverted funds for non-public safety uses,” the FCC said in this year’s report. The FCC has flagged New York every year since the 2009 report to Congress.

New Jersey, Rhode Island and New Mexico led reporting states in percentage of 911 funds diverted to non-911 purposes in 2016, the FCC said. New Jersey diverted 89 percent ($108.1 million) to its general fund and public safety; Rhode Island 60 percent ($8.4 million) to its general fund; and New Mexico 55 percent ($6 million) to its general fund. Rhode Island and New Mexico self-identified as diverting fees, but New Jersey claimed that it didn't, the commission said. Governors for the three states didn’t comment. Comments on the FCC’s ninth annual report on the fees are due March 9 (see 1802080062).

State Efforts

With a new governor in New Jersey, county and industry officials said they hope the state may finally end 911 fee diversion. Phil Murphy (D) took over from Chris Christie (R) in January.

The New Jersey Wireless Association expects to meet soon with Murphy’s staff, NJWA President Rob Ivanoff said. NJWA has been trying to stop fee diversion since the start of the Christie administration, and is working with other state organizations including the New Jersey Association of Counties (NJAC), Ivanoff said. Also, NJWA spoke about the issue with O’Rielly and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Feb. 14 at the NG9-1-1 Institute awards program, he said: “They are both passionate voices on this issue.”

New Jersey counties raised the topic of 911 fee diversion at a “meet-and-greet” with Murphy staff, but it was among several other topics and the administration made no commitments, said NJAC Executive Director John Donnadio in an interview. New Jersey has long diverted fees because the state is “broke,” and the budget will remain a problem even with a new governor, Donnadio said. But 911 fee revenue is critical to offsetting local investments in 911 centers, especially amid transition to next-generation 911 and the FirstNet rollout, he said: “We’re going to continue to press forward.”

A Rhode Island bill to end 911 fee diversion is before the state House, but legislative attempts in previous years failed. Rhode Island State Rep. Robert Lancia, a Republican in the minority, on Jan. 25 introduced HB-7289, which would require 911 fee revenue to be transferred to "a restricted receipt account and used solely for the operation of the E-911 uniform emergency telephone system.” The bill would allow the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission to reduce the 911 surcharge if it determines the fees are bringing more revenue than 911 needs. A separate resolution by Lancia (HR-7313) would set up a legislative commission to study the state’s 911 needs.

Lancia told staff for Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) about inadequate 911 staffing and possible FCC penalties for continued fee diversion, in a Wednesday meeting, Lancia said in an interview. Staff responded that “everything is fine” and “coming up roses,” Lancia said: “Well, it’s clearly not.”

Lancia met resistance in previous years because other lawmakers wanted the 911 money to balance the state budget, he said. Lancia seeks a legislative hearing on his 911 bills this session, but he separately plans a summit of 911 responders in the next few weeks to highlight the issue and add pressure on the General Assembly, he said. Also, Lancia is pushing for an inspector general to target state waste, fraud and abuse -- including in the 911 system, he said.

Lancia began studying 911 problems after a staff member got into an accident, called 911 and was put on hold for “an inordinate amount of time,” he said: “I was stunned to find out that we were collecting $15 million a year” but diverting more than half to the general fund rather than the under-resourced 911 system.

NG-911 Impact

“That we have fee diversion at a time when the [NG-911] transition looms so large is really troubling,” NENA’s Forgety said in an interview. “The costs for states and localities if the transition is delayed are only going to get more and more enormous.”

Three states told GAO that "current funding they collect from telephone service subscribers may not be sufficient to support NG911's transition costs while simultaneously funding the operation of existing 911 systems,” GAO said in its report. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s latest survey found 10 states where all 911 authorities had NG-911, while 18 states had no state or local NG-911 transition plans, GAO said. “GAO spoke with state and local 911 officials in 9 states, which were in various phases of implementing NG911, and found that none of the 9 selected states were accepting images, audio files, or video.” GAO urged NHTSA’s National 911 Program to “develop performance goals and measures and, for the National NG911 Roadmap, determine agencies' roles and responsibilities and develop an implementation plan.” NHTSA agrees, said GAO.

NENA supports O’Rielly’s letter seeking explanation from unresponsive states because silence obscures the problem's true size, Forgety said: “If they diverted, they should explain why.” The federal government could use conditions in future grant programs as a lever to discourage fee diversion, he said. On New Jersey's new governor possibly bringing a fresh view to that state's fee diversion, Forgety said: “For every state, we’re hopeful that new administrations [and] new legislatures will bring about a change to this really unfortunate habit of diverting 911 fees.” Diversion occurs in red and blue states, so ending the practice should not be political, he said.

State 911 administrators don’t support fee diversion, said National Association of State 911 Administrators Executive Director Evelyn Bailey. “Fee diversions do not happen at the level of the state 911 administrator, but at the level of the governor's administration or the state legislature,” she said. “State 911 administrators do everything in their power to avert an impending diversion.”

While supporting FCC attention on 911 fee diversion, Donnadio said he fears a “double-edged sword.” Penalizing the state could have a “trickle-down effect” to localities and taxpayers, the New Jersey counties official cautioned: “If they do come down on states like New Jersey … it’s going to hurt us.”

Editor's Note: This is Part III of an occasional series of stories on 911 problems. Part I showed reliability problems from using pre-internet infrastructure and from institutional complexity, insufficient staffing and funding (see 1709080018). Part II described how hurricanes tested systems and showed need for NG-911 (see 1801030008).