BILL ANALYSIS
AB 912
Page A
Date of Hearing: April 20, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 912 (Torres) - As Introduced: February 26, 2009
SUBJECT : Telecommunications: Emergency Telephone Users
Surcharge Act.
SUMMARY : Increases the maximum surcharge the can be assessed
on intrastate telephone calls to fund 911 services from .75% to
1%. Allocates funds from the 911 surcharge account to fund
personnel costs at Primary Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP)
which accept wireless enhanced 911 calls from within their
jurisdiction.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Warren 911 Act of 1976, which funds for the
telecommunication service between a 911 caller and a public
safety dispatcher.
2)Imposes a surcharge on all intrastate telephone service that
shall be not less than .5% and not more than .75%, to provide
revenues sufficient to fund 911 emergency telephone system
costs.
3)Provides that the Department of General Services (DGS)
determine the annual 911 budget requirement, and calculates
the surcharge.
4)Provides that the all of funds collected under the 911
surcharge account shall be spent solely for the following
purposes:
a. To pay refunds authorized under statute.
b. To pay the State Board of Equalization for the cost
of the administration of the 911 funds.
c. To pay the Department of General Services for its
costs in administration of the 911 emergency telephone
system.
d. To pay service suppliers and communications
equipment companies for the for the installation and
ongoing expenses for systems necessary to operating the
911 energy telephone system
AB 912
Page B
5)Federal law and regulations require wireless telephone
providers to automatically route 911 calls from mobile
telephones to the appropriate local public safety dispatcher
and to provide the dispatcher with the location of the
telephone if the public safety agency has requested the
transfer of wireless calls.
THIS BILL :
1)Imposes a surcharge on all intrastate telephone service that
shall be not less than .5% and not more than 1%, to provide
revenues sufficient to fund 911 emergency telephone system
costs.
2)Provides that at a minimum 50% of the funds collected under
the 911 surcharge account shall be spent solely for the
following purposes:
a. To pay refunds authorized under statute.
b. To pay the State Board of Equalization for the cost
of the administration of the 911 funds.
c. To pay the Department of General Services for its
costs in administration of the 911 emergency telephone
system.
d. To pay service suppliers and communications
equipment companies for the for the installation and
ongoing expenses for systems necessary to operating the
911 energy telephone system
3)Provides that a maximum of 25% of revenues collected under the
911 surcharge account shall be allocated to the Office of
Emergency Services to pay Primary Public Safety Answering
Points, which accept wireless enhanced 911 calls from within
their jurisdiction routed directly to their call centers for
the cost associated with receiving these calls, including
personnel costs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : According to the author's office, the purpose of
this bill is to deliver on the promise of the Warren 911 Act to
create a seamless, responsive universal 911 emergency call
program without regard to the technology used by caller
accessing the system. This bill intends to address that goal by
AB 912
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giving local jurisdictions the resources and incentives they
need to accept 911 calls from mobile telephones so that mobile
calls are not initially routed to the California Highway Portal
(CHP) before being dispatched to local emergency officials.
1) Background : When an individual calls 911 from a landline
telephone, the call is automatically routed to a local PSAP.
The local PSAP has immediate access to the physical location of
the caller and can directly dispatch emergency services. When
an individual calls 911 from a mobile telephone the call may
either be routed to a CHP dispatch center or a local PSAP. When
the CHP receives a mobile 911 telephone call that requires a
response from local emergency responders, the CHP will forward
the call the appropriate local PSAP. This secondary routing can
result in critical delays in responding to emergencies.
Federal rules require mobile providers to route 911 calls to the
local PSAP if the PSAP has the ability to receive these 911
calls and has requested that the mobile provider routes the
calls to them instead of the CHP. Five years ago, no local
primary PSAP answered cell phone calls. Today of the 384 local
Primary PSAPs, all but 34 of them answer 911 calls placed by a
cell phone. Among the 34 Primary PSAPs that do not answer 911
calls placed by cell phones are Oakland, Long Beach, and
Sacramento.<1>
2) The Surcharge : The revenue generated from the 911 surcharge
may only be used for computer the physical equipment, software,
and databases needed to route calls to the dispatch centers.
The current surcharge revenue is not allocated to fund personnel
cost at the dispatch centers.
DGS sets the annual surcharge by first determining that year's
911 budget requirement, and then dividing the budget requirement
by the total number of intrastate phone numbers in the state.
The statute provides that the surcharge must be between 0.5% and
0.75% of the total amount of intrastate telephone communication
usage, and is passed on to customers through a separate line
item on the telephone bill. The surcharge is currently set at
.5% of intrastate telephone calls. The revenue generated from
the surcharge to fund California's 911 program for the fiscal
year 2006-07 was about $114 million.
---------------------------
<1> Local PSAPs that answer mobile telephone calls still will
not answer cell phone calls originating on or near California
highways as highways are CHP's jurisdiction.
AB 912
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3) The use of the surcharge funds : Currently the surcharge can
only be used to fund equipment, software, and databases needed
to route calls to the 911 PSAPs. The fund cannot be used for
personnel costs of the dispatch centers.
The bill also allows for up to 25% of the funds collected to be
allocated to PSAPs that receive 911 calls from mobile telephones
and allows these funds to be used for personnel costs. The
author hopes that allowing PSAPs to use a limited amount of
funds for personnel costs will create an incentive for the 34
PSAPs that do not receive the mobile calls today to begin
receiving these calls.
The telephone companies oppose allowing the 911 funds to be used
for personnel costs and believe that while there is an
appropriate nexus between a surcharge on telephone service and
the physical routing of those calls to a PSAP, there is no nexus
with the actual emergency response process. They believe that
other local government revenues should be used to pay for the
personnel costs.
While the bill allows 911 surcharge funds to be used to fund
permanent staff positions, the author believes that the
additional funding is not needed for ongoing personnel expenses.
Instead, the author's office has stated that funds should be
used for new equipment, staff training, and staff recruitment
that may be needed to for the all PSAP to be able to accept
mobile 911 telephone calls. The committee and the author may
wish to amend the bill to clarify the scope of the new funding
allocation to specifically provide that it can be used for staff
training and recruitment and not for ongoing personnel expenses .
4) How much money is needed : This bill allows DGS to increase
the surcharge so that it could be up to 1% of intrastate calls.
The bill does not mandate this increase, but if DGS were to
increase the surcharge to the maximum of 1% that would lead to
approximately $56 million in additional revenues for 911
program. Even with the expansion of the program to include a
limited amount of personnel costs, there is no evidence that the
current funding limits are insufficient. The committee and the
author may wish to consider amending the bill to strike the
provision that allows DGS to increase the surcharge .
AB 912
Page E
This bill provides that a maximum of 25% of the revenue
generated by the surcharge may be allocated to PSAPs that
receive calls from mobile devices and can be used for personnel
costs. The bill also provides that a minimum of 50% of the
revenue shall be allocated to all other equipment costs under
the California 911 program. If there is a 25% cap on the new
allocation of funds, the minimum 50% allocation on the rest of
the funds for the additional allowable uses is necessary. The
committee and the author may wish to consider amending the bill
to strike the unnecessary minimum allocation requirement .
5) Technical amendments : On page 5, line 7, the bill references
"The Office of Emergency Services", this should actually
reference the "Department of General Services"
6) Double Referral : This bill is double referred to the Assembly
Committee on Revenue and Taxation.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Alameda County Sheriff's Office
Amador County Sheriff
California Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association
(CalNENA)
California State Association of Counties (CSAC)
California State Sheriff's Association (CSSA)
County of Del Norte
County of Santa Cruz
Mariposa County Sheriff
Riverside Sheriff's Association
Sacramento County Sheriff's Department
Shasta County Sheriff
Sheriff of Amador County
Sheriff of San Bernardino
Sheriff of Santa Cruz County
Sheriff of Ventura County
Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office
Yolo County Sheriff's Department
Opposition
AB 912
Page F
AT&T
California Association of Competitive Telecommunications
Companies (CALTEL)
California Cable and Telecommunications Association (CCTA)
California Communications Association (CalCom)
CTIA - The Wireless Association
Verizon Wireless
Analysis Prepared by : Edward Randolph / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083