Tarrant County’s 911 district may raise phone bill fees for the first time in decades
The agency that supports Tarrant County’s 800 911 dispatchers is spending more money than it brings in, forcing fire chiefs and 911 specialists to consider raising the fees phone customers pay for the first time in more than two decades.
For at least five years the Tarrant County 9-1-1 district has had more expenses than revenue, forcing it to eat into reserves and inch closer to operating in the red. Annually the district brings in about $15 million, entirely from service fees, but has expenses closer to $24 million.
The district needs to raise fees that haven’t been adjusted since they were established in 1985 and 1998, said Shinar Haynes, district director.
“It’s not hard to imagine the district can’t continue to function with next generation technology while receiving 1980s fees,” Haynes said.
Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis said it’s likely the district will be operating in a deficit by 2022.
In Texas, un-elected 911 district boards establish budgets for their emergency communications operations. Members are appointed by municipalities within the district. Fort Worth’s appointees are Davis and MedStar director Doug Houton. These boards determine how much to charge phone customers, the districts’ only source of revenue.
Though board meetings are open, the budget process is a bit muddled.
The Tarrant County 911 board will approve a budget, and then it’s made public. After that, three of five local governments must also approve the budget: Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Irving and the Tarrant County Commissioners Court.
As the district moves through its budget process, conversations have begun in earnest about raising the fees, Davis said, though it’s unclear by how much or if that decision will come for the 2021 fiscal year.
911 on your phone bill
Tarrant County phone customers pay the lowest monthly fees for 911 service in the state. Residential landline customers pay 20 cents while businesses pay 46 cents per line up to 100 lines. Voice over Internet service is charged 50 cents per line.
Bexar County, which has similar population, charges residential customers 50 cents and businesses $1 per line. The Capital Area Emergency Communications District, which serves the Austin area, charges all customers 50 cents per line while Texas Eastern, which services a population of more than 2 million in Harrison and Rusk Counties, charges 50 cents and $1.18. Dallas charges 62 cents for residential lines and $1.52 for business lines.
Cell phone customers are charged 50 cents, a fee set by the state.
These fees fund the district, which employs roughly 30 people who support more than 800 dispatchers at various emergency services. While MedStar, police and fire departments handle calls, the district ensures the network is operational. Technology makes about 80% of the district’s budget, Haynes said.
When fees for the district were first set for land lines in 1985 and updated for cellphones in the late 1990s, mapping was simple. Landlines identified the caller’s location. Now a cellphone must ping the nearest tower, offering an estimate about where the emergency is, she said.
The district also provides training to police, fire, paramedics and others who need state 911 certifications. So far this year, roughly 800 Tarrant County first-responders have taken classes through the district, Haynes said. Along with that, it operates a public education program.
“911 used to be two cups and a string — your house and the 911 center,” Haynes said. “We do a lot more than that now.”
Conversations happen almost yearly about raising the fee, said Arlington Fire Chief and board chairman Don Crowson. He’s served on the board for 10 years.
In the past there has been limited appetite for increases, with the board opting to operate a tight budget and rely on growth to increase revenue, he said.
He said he expects the board to also support a resolution asking the state to raise the cellphone fee to 75 cents.
Tarrant County’s booming population should mean more phone lines and more revenue for the district. For years that was true, Crowson said, pointing to more than two decades without rate hikes as proof the district had managed the budget well. But eventually the cost to upgrade technology, including Text-to-911, began to outpace revenue.
Tarrant County has been slow to adopt text-to-911, but the service should roll out later this year. The technology cost the district $400,000 and $150,000 per year to maintain.
“We’re in a 2020 reality with 2020 demands on a 1980s and ‘90s fee structure,” Crowson said. “I think we’ve done very well with the budget, historically, and we still are. But it’s time to make an adjustment.”
Cost cutting
Davis said he’s concerned that one cost cutting measure could negatively impact Fort Worth and other cities.
Annually the city receives about $1 million from the 911 district to help fund police and fire call centers and radio equipment upgrades. All the municipalities in the district get some form of assistance, but Fort Worth’s is the largest portion.
“If they cut funding for those programs, I need to make sure we account for that in Fort Worth,” Davis said.
Davis said he believes savings could be found by consolidating call centers, but Haynes said she wasn’t so sure consolidation would save the 911 district, arguing much of cost to run the centers are taken up by the municipalities in which they’re located.
“The same amount of calls would need to be processed,” she said. “We’d need the same amount of positions we’re paying for now, they’d just be in a different place.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
