ATLANTA – Prepaid phone users will pay a higher fee if lawmakers approve a plan to boost local 911 centers across the state.

The 911 fee, which is tacked onto a customer’s phone bill, would be increased to $1.50 per month under the proposal, up from 75 cents. That is the rate others already pay for cell phones and landlines.

“This just brings parity, so everybody is paying the same thing,” said Debra Nesbit, associate legislative director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

The fee increase is part of a sweeping measure that would also press phone companies that may not be properly charging the fee, which has prompted several counties to pursue the lost revenue in court.

But with one week left in the legislative session, time is running out for the measure. The bill, which has already cleared the Senate, had not made it out of a key House committee as of Thursday.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, is expected to raise a significant amount of revenue for a critical service that relies heavily on local government funding throughout most of the state.

The 911 fees, for example, fall about $200,000 short of what’s needed to run the Colquitt County center.

“Anything will help,” said Chas Cannon, the county’s administrator. “If we don’t get it, it’s coming from property taxes. We’re trying to offset the burden on property owners for 911 costs.”

Charging all phone users the same fee is a fair way to do that, he said.

How much new revenue will come to 911 centers through the proposal remains to be seen. It’s not clear right now, for example, just how many phone lines are not being charged the fee right now.

About $162 million is already collected from all phone users. About $18 million came from prepaid phones last year.

The prepaid phone revenue would double under the plan. Phone companies have also agreed to no longer keep a portion of the fees to cover their costs to support 911, freeing up millions more for the service locally.

The fees do not currently come close to fully funding 911 across the state, Nesbit told lawmakers this week. A county association survey found that it costs at least $220 million to run 911 in Georgia, and that’s with 50 centers not responding to the poll.

The picture is particularly bleak in rural Georgia, she said.

“They are desperate. They are facing the closure of 911 centers,” Nesbit said.

But the prospect of raising that much new revenue has lawmakers wary of the proposal’s call to create a new statewide authority that would be a clearinghouse for the funds.

“That’s a lot of money,” said Rep. Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, who heads the House Judiciary Committee, where the bill is still under consideration.

Willard was among those who prefer the state Department of Revenue collect and distribute the local fees. Right now, the state agency only handles the prepaid fees, while the phone companies collect the rest and send it to local governments.

“To me, we don’t need to rebuild the wheel to accomplish what we’re trying to do here,” he said.

The new authority would also have the power to audit phone companies. It would also guide local centers as they upgrade their equipment so dispatchers can more easily identify a caller’s location, as well as accept text messages, photos and other caller data. 

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.