Print This Post Print This Post

Sep

20

Ohio legislature to let fee for wireless 911 expire, updated with county reports


I’ve written about the poor provision of wireless 911 in Ohio and the impending crisis as more people give up landlines numerous times.

Now, a source from inside the statehouse tells me that although a few lawmakers would like to renew the 33 cent fee, most lawmakers prefer to let the authorization for the fee expire as it now stands at the end of 2008.

Opinion: enormous mistake to let this minimal surcharge for a life-saving service expire. National reviews of the need for and ability to meet the need for wireless 911 service placed Ohio at the bottom already. If you get in deep doodoo, you are going to be in even deeper doodoo.

The only way for this to change? If an Ohio legislator who currently doesn’t support extending the fee – which, btw, is already on the extreme low-end compared to most states, gets stuck in the doodoo.

If you fear for the impact of the fee’s expiration, I would urge you to contact your local and county government.

Here’s info from the FCC you should know.

Use this tool to read about how your county, in Ohio or anywhere else in the States, stacks up.

Bookmark and Share

By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:01 pm September 20th, 2007 in Government, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse 

Comments

2 Responses to “Ohio legislature to let fee for wireless 911 expire, updated with county reports”

  1. 1 Maggie on September 26th, 2007 10:53 am

    Jill – thanks for bringing up this issue. Lucas County has been rather aggressive in implementing the phases of this 911 project…and, if I recall correctly, we’ve relied upon this funding source rather extensively.

  2. 2 Jill Miller Zimon on September 26th, 2007 2:23 pm

    Maggie, I really appreciate your input. I may err on the side of being overly cautious, but I just feel that when we’re aware of what is going to become a bigger and bigger issue, and not go away, we cannot afford to keep putting it off. It gives us no excuse in the future. I’ll try to stay up on it.

Leave a Reply




"));