911 Revenue Cash Cow For YOUR State Too?, page 1

Get, get, get down: 911 revenue's no joke in your town

I didn't quote the original headline in the post header because it's too vague

I don't know about you but I look at my gas bill in the summer time and we don't use gas at all in the summer time... Yet the bill is $35?!?!? to run a furnace pilot light?!?!

That's all we run in summer, a furnace pilot. Gas charge is actually about .40 cents or just over a penny a day per month.

Oops! Way off topic... But, wait a minute, that is the topic of this thread. Being way over charged with the added bonus of these charges being abused.

In essence, the consumer is abused. YOU are being abused, yet again...

Now, look at your phone bill. Land line; Cell phone; it doesn't matter.

You have the 911 charge on there... Here's more information of what our glorious government does with the over charges... and this mysteriously happens everywhere.

If you take a close look at your mobile or landline phone monthly bill (which you should—right, Nate?), you'll note a list of "Government Fees and Taxes" somewhere on the statement. This should include a tithe typically labeled "9-1-1 emergency services," which presumably subsidizes just that—the agencies that answer the phone and connect to first responders when you call 911 for help.

But does the money really go there? A new survey by the Federal Communications Commission indicates that in 2009 over a dozen states did not or may not have spent these funds on 911 or "E911" services, which zone in on caller locations.

No problem huh? It's only a few cents, maybe a dollar at the most huh?

911 is supposed to be for helping those in desperate need. I had heard that some states/counties will charge per use for emergency 911...

Well, there's more, and my state is the worst offender on the list! $25,000,000 in over payment!

Georgia collected $8,537,319 in prepaid 911 fees. "None of these funds were allocated for 911 or E911 use,"
...
New York squirreled $10 million from its Local Wireless Account into its general fund.
...
Last but not least comes the great state of Wisconsin:

"911 Fund collected approximately $25,000,000 in excess of the actual requests for funds submitted by the 911 grant applicants. A small portion of that collection was applied to the salary expense the Commission incurred to administer the program. The funds collected in excess of the wireless E911 program obligations were transferred to the state's general purpose revenue account on June 30, 2009."

It's not that I'm against public services... I abhor the deception of our government.

Every turn they pilfer and steal under the guise of "doing what's in our interest".

This is clearly one more shard at the tip of a splintering iceberg wrapped in global warming.

Just thought ATS'ers might want to know...