Residents could see their phone bills going up soon if the Haines Borough Assembly approves a recommendation recently advanced by staff.
The assembly introduced an ordinance last week that would add a monthly surcharge of $1.51 to every land line and cell phone in the borough. That pencils out to about $18 annually per line.
The assembly voted 5-1 to introduce the ordinance, with assembly member George Campbell opposed.
The ordinance is scheduled for its first public hearing at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Manager David Sosa said revenue from the surcharge would help pay for the maintenance and operations of the borough’s new $500,000 Enhanced E-911 system and finance its replacement in the future.
Much like his plan with water and sewer rate increases, Sosa is hoping to set aside money not just to operate the current system, but to pay for its eventual replacement.
“This is not something we have done before with our programs, but it is something we are going to have to do if we want to be responsible as we bring infrastructure on,” he said. “(We need to) make sure that we understand it will need to be replaced and start funding that replacement at an early time.”
Assembly member Campbell balked at what he referred to as a tax, proposing that it be added as a fee to people who end up in jail. “Why are we not charging a surcharge and cost to everybody that is found guilty? I think we need to tie it into that. I don’t agree with tying it to phones,” Campbell said.
Assembly member Dave Berry said he was happy to pay for the service. “I can’t speak for everyone else in this room, but I’m willing to pay my $1.51 a month to make sure that we have a 911 service that works,” he said.
Berry also contested Campbell’s characterization of the $1.51 as a tax. “It’s not a tax. It’s a special surcharge,” he said.
State law allows municipalities to charge up to $2 monthly to pay for their emergency communications systems. Sosa said the $1.51 is less than what other communities in Southeast charge. Juneau, for example, pays $1.90.
Staff calculated the fee based on system operating and replacement costs. Figuring it costs $49,514 annually for operation and replacement (assuming the system has a useful life of 12 years), and there are an estimated 2,730 phone lines in the borough, that comes out to $1.51 a month.
Sosa said the fee can be charged regardless of where a cell phone is purchased. “If you have a cell phone, you have an address tied to the cell phone. So wherever you are, that fee is tied to that address on the cell phone. So even if you buy the cell phone someplace else, if that number is tied to a payment address in Haines, that fee will be charged to the payment address in Haines,” he said.
The borough received a $70,000 USDA Community Facility Grant to pay for a portion of the E-911 project but has borne the remainder of the roughly $430,000 cost.
The new system has improved radio communications, upgraded the console used at the dispatch center and made the system E-911 compliant, Sosa said. “We have a significantly increased capability with the new system over what we had. We are able to talk all the way up the highway, we have good communications and the computer systems are such that we are able to track calls much better than we could before,” he said.
According to the ordinance, the phone company would include the surcharge on phone bills, collect the money, and transfer it to the borough. The companies are allowed to deduct “limited administrative costs” from the revenue.