Funding trouble for 911

VINCENNES, IN — A southern Indiana E-911 system has a money emergency of its own.

The Knox County system is losing funding rapidly.

The county council has stepped in to provide some stop gap money, but the real solution will require some work from state lawmakers.

Knox County’s E-911 system was supposed to be self supporting.

The equipment and salaries were supposed to be covered by fees generated on phone bills.

That funding though isn’t working.

“Our funding situation has dwindled over the past 10 years,” said Knox County E-911 Director Debbie Schmindtknecht. “We are receiving about 50 percent less..we received about 50 percent less in 2010 than we did in 2000.”

The problem is the way the system is funded.

Originally it was covered by a fee for land phone lines.

Those lines have disappeared as people moved to cell phones.

There is a smaller fee for cell lines, but the state takes a big chunk of that money.

Local officials say the state’s approach is a big problem.

“If you give the state enough time they’ll find a way to mess up a good system,” said Knox County Council Vice-President Bob Lechner.

Changing technology and dwindling revenue have finally forced the E-911 system in Knox County to ask the county council for financial help, and other E-911 operations around the state experiencing the same problems.

“Every public safety answering point, every p-sap is having the same funding problems we are,” said Schmidtknecht.

“It’s become such an issue that the Association of Indiana Counties has made it a priority for the legislature to address and fix this session,” added Lechner.

Even though the issue is one that reaches virtually everyone with a phone or a need for an emergency service, lawmakers say it’s unlikely they’ll tackle the issue in the short session.

The proposal being presented to the state would include a flat one dollar monthly fee on all types of phones.

Read the story here.

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