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May 20, 2009

Overall, mobile wireless operators in Hawaii will continue to charge a 66-cent additional fee to cover the cost of 911 emergency location technology, even though the system has been paid for, since lawmakers are using the additional money to help balance the state budget.

Republican Governor Linda Lingle and the board that oversees the mobile phone fund had asked the Democrat-controlled Legislature to cut the fee that generates about $670,000 per month.

House Finance Committee Chairman Marcus Oshiro, D-Wahiawa-Poamoho, said the transferred money still serves a public purpose. Others disagree.

So far, the State Legislature rejected the requests, and instead is moving $16 million from the fund, leaving it with about $9 million. Meanwhile, the tax created more than five years ago sill remains effective.

Hawaii cell phone users are fed up of paying a tax on a 911 emergency system that has been long paid for and demand action by asking to eliminate the tax altogether, said one observer that asked that his name not be revealed.

"It goes to the benefit of the general public, so the money is not lost or squandered somewhere," Oshiro said. "It goes to pay for services like hospitals or schools or parks."

Senator Sam Slom, R-Diamond Head-Hawaii Kai, said if the fee is no longer needed, it should stop.

Slom said "the objective has been nearly totally realized. They should take out whatever money to make sure everything gets done and then refund the rest to the wireless users."

The original purpose of the fee has been largely fulfilled, said State Comptroller Russ Saito, a member of the Wireless Enhanced 911 Board.

Saito said maintenance and expansion of the wireless caller locator service could occur even with a fee reduction.

Saito added that emergency location technology is available statewide, but excess money could be used to make mobile phone services available in so-called "dead" areas where coverage is spotty, such as valleys, rural areas and inside buildings.

"It's just that there's not 100 percent geographical coverage," he said. "In certain areas of Hawaii, people don't get wireless service so they can't call 911. Part of what the board would like to do is extend service into those areas."

"As a Cabinet officer looking at what was being taken versus what was being spent, my recommendation was to reduce the fee," Saito said. "We could still cover our costs. We could still cover some of the expansions that we wanted."

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Source: HSN.