Firm to research if all are paying for 911
A new state law taking effect Aug. 1 will have phone customers paying an additional monthly surcharge for 911 emergency service, and besides Washington County opting into the fund that will become available, the commissioners took action to try to recover uncollected surcharge fees.
Last week, the commissioners entered into a contingency agreement with Phone Recovery Services LLC to research the number of phone lines businesses operate.
“A company is supposed to pay a fee for each line,” said Scott Fergus, Washington County director of administration. “What they found as they started to do these audits with multiline customers, they’re not collecting the fee for all the lines.”
Fergus referred to a situation in Delaware County, in which the Dilworth Paxson LLP law firm filed suit against 19 telephone providers for $41.4 million allegedly owed to the county’s 911 service. According to a story reported last month by Channel NBC10 in Philadelphia, Phone Recovery Services estimated there were 811,698 active phone lines in Delaware County, but service providers were remitting 911 surcharges for only 230,811 lines, resulting in a $6.9 million shortfall that taxpayers were forced to contribute through the county’s general fund.
Delaware County, in eastern Pennsylvania, has a much larger population than Washington County, so it’s highly unlikely that numbers here would reach those totals. County officials think, however, that money recovered could be significant, depending on how far back the audits go to determine money that should have been going to 911 anyway.
Washington County taxpayers, according to the 2015 budget, are expected to contribute $800,000 to the 911 system. If money is recovered this year, the 911 emergency center would be in a position to remit some or part of county taxpayers’ subsidy this year.
The taxpayer contribution has fluctuated between $500,000 and $800,000 over the past decade.
If necessary, the county also will employ Dilworth Paxson to take alleged scofflaws to court.
The commissioners unanimously voted to engage Phone Recovery Services and the law firm, making it the 15th of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties to take this route, Fergus said.
Washington County residents and commercial phone customers are to pay a surcharge of $1.25 per phone line per month. Under the recently enacted legislation, the fee increases Aug. 1 to $1.65 for each cellular, land and Voice Over Internet Protocol account each month.
Jeff Yates, Washington County emergency services director, said last week of the new law, “What they passed looks pretty favorable.”