Senate Bill No. 485
(By Senators McCabe, Harrison, Sprouse and Foster)
____________
[Introduced February 3, 2006; referred to the Committee
on Transportation and Infrastructure; and then to the Committee
on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §24-6-6b of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to decreasing the 911 fee on
wireless telephones from three dollars to seventy-five cents;
reverting the distribution formula for 911 fees to the
previous formula; and eliminating the Wireless Tower Fund.
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 seventy-
five cents 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 moneys 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 a pro rata portion of the remainder of the
fee revenues fee revenues received by the Public Service
Commission, based on that county's percentage of the total number
of local exchange telephone access lines and line equivalents in
service in the state: 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 portion of the remaining fee revenue, being
disbursed to counties on a pro rata basis 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.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to revert the 911 fee on
wireless telephones from three dollars to seventy-five cents in
accordance with the provisions of the statute that existed prior to
last year's amendment while reverting the distribution formula for
911 fees to the previous formula that existed prior to the
amendment last year. The bill also eliminates the wireless tower
fund.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.