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ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 3208
(By Delegates Trump, Michael, Mahan, Campbell and Ashley)
[Passed April 9, 2005; in effect ninety days from passage]
AN ACT to amend and reenact §24-6-6b of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the wireless enhanced 911 fee;
raising the fee; earmarking ten cents to the fee for the State
Police; earmarking one million dollars of the fee for the
construction of wireless towers; creating the Enhanced 911
Wireless Tower Assistance Fund to be administered by the
Public Service Commission; authorizing the Commission to
provide loans and matching grants; use of towers for emergency
services; authorizing the Commission to promulgate rules and
emergency rules; adjusting the formula by which the Public
Service Commission distributes wireless enhanced 911 fees to
the counties; and allowing counties which consolidate
government services to receive one percent of fee for each
county consolidated.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §24-6-6b of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. LOCAL EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM.
§24-6-6b. Wireless enhanced 911 fee.
(a) Beginning on the first day of January, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-eight, all CMRS providers, as defined in section two
of this article, shall, on a monthly basis, collect from each of
their in-state two-way service subscribers a wireless enhanced 911
fee. No later than the first day of August, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-eight, the Public Service Commission, shall, after
the receipt of comments and the consideration of evidence presented
at a hearing, issue an order which directs the CMRS providers
regarding all relevant details of wireless enhanced 911 fee
collection, including the determination of who is considered an in-
state two-way service subscriber and which shall specify how the
CMRS providers shall deal with fee collection shortfalls caused by
uncollectible accounts. The Public Service Commission shall solicit
the views of the wireless telecommunications utilities prior to
issuing the order.
(b) The wireless enhanced 911 fee is three dollars per month
for each valid retail commercial mobile radio service subscription,
as that term is defined by the Public Service Commission in its
order issued under subsection (a) of this section: Provided, That
beginning on the first day of July, two thousand five, the wireless
enhanced 911 fee shall include ten cents to be distributed to the
West Virginia State Police to be used for equipment upgrades for
improving and integrating their communication efforts with those of the enhanced 911 systems: Provided, however, That for the fiscal
year beginning on the first day of July, two thousand five, and for
every fiscal year thereafter, one million dollars of the wireless
enhanced 911 fee shall be distributed by the Public Service
Commission to subsidize the construction of towers. The monies
shall be deposited in a fund administered by the West Virginia
Public Service Commission, entitled "Enhanced 911 wireless Tower
Access Assistance Fund", and shall be expended in accordance with
an enhanced 911 wireless tower access matching grant order adopted
by the Public Service Commission. The Commission order shall
contain terms and conditions designed to provide financial
assistance loans or grants to state agencies, political
subdivisions of the state and wireless telephone carriers for the
acquisition, equipping and construction of new wireless towers,
which would provide enhanced 911 service coverage, and which would
not be available otherwise due to marginal financial viability of
the applicable tower coverage area: Provided further, That the
grants shall be allocated among potential sites based on
application from county commissions demonstrating the need for
enhanced 911 wireless coverage in specific areas of this state.
Any tower constructed with assistance from the fund created by this
subdivision shall be available for use by emergency services, fire
departments and law enforcement agencies communication equipment,
so long as that use does not interfere with the carrier's wireless
signal: And provided further, That the Public Service Commission
shall promulgate rules in accordance with article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code to effectuate the provisions of this
subsection. The Public Service Commission is specifically
authorized to promulgate emergency rules.
(c) Beginning in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-
seven, and every two years thereafter, the Public Service
Commission shall conduct an audit of the wireless enhanced 911 fee
and shall recalculate the fee so that it is the weighted average
rounded to the nearest penny, as of the first day of March of the
respecification year, of all of the enhanced 911 fees imposed by
the counties which have adopted an enhanced 911 ordinance:
Provided, That the wireless enhanced 911 fee may never be increased
by more than twenty-five percent of its value at the beginning of
the respecification year: Provided, however, That the fee may never
be less than the amount set in subsection (b) of this section:
Provided further, That beginning on the first day of July, two
thousand five, the wireless enhanced 911 fee shall include ten
cents to be distributed to the West Virginia State Police to be
used for equipment upgrades for improving and integrating their
communication efforts with those of the enhanced 911 systems: And
provided further, That beginning on the first day of July, two
thousand five, one million dollars of the wireless enhanced 911 fee
shall be distributed by the Public Service Commission to subsidize
the construction of wireless towers as specified in subsection (b)
of this section.
(d) The CMRS providers shall, after retaining a three percent billing fee, send the wireless enhanced 911 fee moneys collected,
on a monthly basis, to the Public Service Commission. The Public
Service Commission shall, on a quarterly and approximately evenly
staggered basis, disburse the fee revenue in the following manner:
(1) Each county that does not have a 911 ordinance in effect
as of the original effective date of this section in the year one
thousand nine hundred ninety-seven or has enacted a 911 ordinance
within the five years prior to the original effective date of this
section in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, shall
receive eight and one half tenths of one percent of the fee
revenues received by the Public Service Commission: Provided, That
after the effective date of this section, in the year two thousand
five, when two or more counties consolidate into one county to
provide government services, the consolidated county shall receive
one percent of the fee revenues received by the Public Service
Commission for itself and for each county merged into the
consolidated county. Each county shall receive eight and one half
tenths of one percent of the remainder of the fee revenues received
by the Public Service Commission: Provided, however, That after the
effective date of this section, in the year two thousand five, when
two or more counties consolidate into one county to provide
government services, the consolidated county shall receive one
percent of the fee revenues received by the Public Service
Commission for itself and for each county merged into the
consolidated county. Then, from any moneys remaining, each county shall receive a pro rata portion of that remainder based on that
county's population as determined in the most recent decennial
census as a percentage of the state total population. The Public
Service Commission shall recalculate the county disbursement
percentages on a yearly basis, with the changes effective on the
first day of July, and using data as of the preceding first day of
March. The public utilities which normally provide local exchange
telecommunications service by means of lines, wires, cables,
optical fibers or by other means extended to subscriber premises
shall supply the data to the Public Service Commission on a county
specific basis no later than the first day of June of each year;
(2) Counties which have an enhanced 911 ordinance in effect
shall receive their share of the wireless enhanced 911 fee revenue
for use in the same manner as the enhanced 911 fee revenues
received by those counties pursuant to their enhanced 911
ordinances;
(3) The Public Service Commission shall deposit the wireless
enhanced 911 fee revenue for each county which does not have an
enhanced 911 ordinance in effect into an escrow account which it
has established for that county. Any county with an escrow account
may, immediately upon adopting an enhanced 911 ordinance, receive
the moneys which have accumulated in the escrow account for use as
specified in subdivision (2), subsection (d) of this section:
Provided, That a county that adopts a 911 ordinance after the
original effective date of this section in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven or has adopted a 911 ordinance within
five years of the original effective date of this section in the
year one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, shall continue to
receive one percent of the total 911 fee revenue for a period of
five years following the adoption of the ordinance. Thereafter,
each county shall receive that county's eight and one half tenths
of one percent of the remaining fee revenue, plus that county's
additional pro rata portion of the fee revenues then remaining,
based on that county's population as determined in the most recent
decennial census as a percentage of the state total population:
Provided, however, That every five years from the year one thousand
nine hundred ninety-seven, all fee revenue residing in escrow
accounts shall be disbursed on the pro rata basis specified in
subdivision (1), subsection (d) of this section, except that data
for counties without enhanced 911 ordinances in effect shall be
omitted from the calculation and all escrow accounts shall begin
again with a zero balance.
(e) CMRS providers have the same rights and responsibilities
as other telephone service suppliers in dealing with the failure by
a subscriber of a CMRS provider to timely pay the wireless enhanced
911 fee.
(f) Notwithstanding the provisions of section one-a of this
article, for the purposes of this section, the term "county" means
one of the counties provided in section one, article one, chapter
one of this code.
(g) From any funds distributed to a county pursuant to this
section, a total of three percent shall be set aside in a special
fund to be used exclusively for the purchase of equipment that will
provide information regarding the x and y coordinates of persons
who call an emergency telephone system through a commercial mobile
radio service: Provided, That upon purchase of the necessary
equipment, the special fund shall be dissolved and any surplus
shall be used for general operation of the emergency telephone
system as may otherwise be provided by law.