O’Rielly Slams Rhode Island for Punting on State 911 Fee Diversion
Rhode Island lawmakers might consider ending 911 fee diversion next year, Rhode Island House Finance Vice Chairman Kenneth Marshall (D) told us Friday. Seeking a more immediate fix, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and state Rep. Robert Lancia (R) slammed a proposed Rhode Island budget that renames rather than restricts the state 911 fund. “The citizens of your state deserve more than just a name change,” said O’Rielly in a Friday letter to Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) and Rhode Island House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello (D). Raimondo earlier supported legislators ending diversion (see 1803200052).
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Rhode Island lawmakers were expected to pass a $9.6 billion budget Friday night, but the version available before our deadline wouldn’t end diversion of 911 fee revenue to other purposes. It would rename the fund as the “emergency services and first response surcharge” and add $1 million to the state’s E-911 center’s budget. The Rhode Island session doesn’t technically end until June 30, but once the budget passes, there likely won’t be another opportunity to address the problem until next year, said Lancia aide and House Minority policy analyst Ian O’Connor.
“Maybe in the near future the funding can be dedicated strictly for this use,” emailed Marshall, who attended Lancia’s April 911 summit where O’Rielly spoke. Next session, Marshall wants to set up a review commission to look further into the issues, he said. “There appears to be some legitimacy to some of the claims made regarding both our funding stream, staffing, and updating of systems that need to be addressed,” he said. “Fortunately, it appears that the Administration and Legislative bodies are incrementally addressing the changes necessary to our 911 services.”
O’Rielly wrote Raimondo and Mattiello seeking their “personal intervention to help reverse the course and restore the sanctity of 9-1-1 fees within the state.” The governor and House speaker appeared to support ending diversion in April, the FCC commissioner said. “Unfortunately, it seems my hope for a quick correction was misplaced,” O'Rielly said. The budget plan “seems to vastly miss the mark,” he said. Rather than end diversion, the state “plans to paper over its practices by changing the name of the consumer E911 charge,” he said. That would only “alleviate the deception imposed on your citizens,” he said. “Your state is diverting 60 percent of the funds intended and necessary for public safety purposes to your general fund, and no amount of relabeling will resolve this reality.”
“Either use the money to run and improve our 911 services or stop collecting it,” Lancia said in a Friday news release. “Renaming the fee so you can put it in the General Fund is not honesty, it’s deceitful. … It is time for us to stop dumping this money into the general fund and create a restricted receipt account.”
Dedicated 911 funding is critical as states transition to next-generation 911, emailed National Emergency Number Association Director-Government Affairs Dan Henry. “Budgetary shell games like those being played in Rhode Island are not the solution to 9-1-1 fee diversion.”
“This question should be directed to the legislature,” a Raimondo spokesman said when asked why the budget doesn’t end diversion as the governor pledged. Raimondo and Mattiello didn’t comment on the O’Rielly letter.