Senate Bill No. 198

(By Senator Love)

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[Introduced February 21, 2001; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section six-b, article six, chapter twenty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to using wireless enhanced 911 fees to provide wireless enhanced 911 service in those counties without total wireless coverage.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section six-b, article six, chapter twenty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, 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 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.
(c) Beginning in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, and every two years thereafter after that, 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.
(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 effective date of this section eleventh day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven or has enacted a 911 ordinance within the five years prior to the effective date of this section that date shall receive one percent of the fee revenues received by the public service commission and from the remainder of the revenues, each county shall receive a pro rata portion of the 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. 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; and
(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 effective date of this section eleventh day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven or has adopted a 911 ordinance within five years of the effective date of this section that date shall continue to receive one percent of the 911 fee revenue for a period of five years following the adoption of the ordinance and thereafter after that shall receive that county's portion of the fee revenue being disbursed to counties on a pro rata basis: 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 for in section one, article one, chapter one of this code.
(g) From any (1) After the first day of June, two thousand one, all funds distributed to a county pursuant to this section, a total of three percent quarter shall be set aside in a special fund to be used exclusively for the purchase and installation of equipment:
(A) That will provide information regarding the x and y coordinates of persons who call an emergency telephone system through a commercial mobile radio service; and
(B) To ensure total county coverage of the wireless enhanced 911 service, such as relay towers . Provided, That
(2) Upon purchase and installation 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.
(3) All amounts in a county's special fund shall be forfeited to the public service commission if the commission determines that: (A) There are sufficient amounts in the special fund for the purchase and installation of equipment described in subdivision (1) of this subsection; and
(B) The county is not making a good faith effort to purchase and install the equipment.
(4) If the funds are forfeited to the commission the commission shall provide for the purchase and installation of the equipment in the county.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require counties that receive wireless enhanced 911 fees to use the money to ensure equipment is available so that wireless enhanced 911 service is available throughout the county.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.