Report Title:

Wireless Enhanced 911; Surcharge

Description:

Fund prior to the 2009 regular session and review every 5 years thereafter.  Adds definitions and places limits on expenditures from the fund.  Makes surcharge permissible, rather than required.  Requires the 2009 annual report of the wireless enhanced 911 board to explain authority for certain expenditures proposed by its 2009 annual report.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	203
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO WIRELESS ENHANCED 911.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  Section 138-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "[[]§138-3[]]  Wireless enhanced 911 fund. (a)  There is established outside the state treasury a special fund, to be known as the wireless enhanced 911 fund, to be administered by the board.  The fund shall consist of amounts collected under section 138-4.  Moneys paid into the fund are not general fund revenues of the State.  The board shall place the funds in an interest-bearing account at any federally insured financial institution, separate and apart from the general fund of the State.  Moneys in the fund shall be expended exclusively by the board for the purposes of ensuring adequate cost recovery for the deployment of phase I and phase II wireless enhanced 911 service and for expenses of administering the fund.

(b)  For purposes of this section:

"Deployment of phase I and phase II wireless enhanced 911 service" means those actions necessarily taken by the wireless provider to provide phase I and phase II wireless enhanced 911 service upon request of a public safety answering point and by the public safety answering point to make the service operational, but does not include actions thereafter taken to operate the service.

"Expenses of administering the fund" means those expenses necessarily incurred to administer the fund, including expenditures for reimbursements pursuant to sections 138-2 and 138-5, financial institution fees, and audit expenses incurred pursuant to section 138-7."

     SECTION 2.  Section 138-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsections (a) to read as follows:

     "(a)  A monthly wireless enhanced 911 surcharge, subject to this chapter, [shall] may be imposed upon each commercial mobile radio service connection."

     SECTION 3.  Section 138-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

     "(a)  [After January 1, 2005, every] Every public safety answering point shall be eligible to seek reimbursement from the fund solely to pay for the reasonable costs to lease, purchase, or maintain all necessary equipment, including computer hardware, software, and database provisioning, required by the public safety answering point to provide technical functionality for the wireless enhanced 911 service pursuant to the Federal Communications Commission order.  Reimbursements under this section may supplement but shall not supplant the funds regularly appropriated for these purposes.  All other expenses necessary to operate the public safety answering point, including but not limited to those expenses related to overhead, staffing, and other day-to-day operational expenses, shall continue to be paid through the general funding of the respective counties.  For the purposes of this subsection, "operational expenses" include any charges for ongoing service provided by the local exchange carrier."

     SECTION 4.  Section 138-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "[[]§138-6[]]  Report to the legislature.  The board shall submit an annual report to the legislature[,] no later than twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session of the legislature, beginning with the 2010 regular session, including:

     (1)  The total aggregate surcharge collected by the State in the last fiscal year;

     (2)  The amount of disbursement from the fund;

     (3)  The recipient of each disbursement and a description of the project for which the money was disbursed;

     (4)  The conditions, if any, placed by the board on disbursements from the fund;

     (5)  The planned expenditures from the fund in the next two fiscal [year;] years;

     (6)  The amount of any unexpended funds carried forward for the next fiscal year;

     (7)  A cost study to guide the legislature towards necessary adjustments to the fund and the monthly surcharge[; and] that specifies the level of surcharge necessary to fund the board's expenses and planned expenditures; and

     (8)  A progress report of jurisdictional readiness for wireless E911 services, including each public safety answering [points,] point, wireless [providers,] provider, and wireline [providers.] provider.  The report shall include the status of requirements outlined in the Federal Communications Commission Order 94-102 and subsequent supporting orders related to phase I and phase II wireless 911 services."

     SECTION 5.  (a)  The auditor shall conduct a financial and management audit of the wireless enhanced 911 fund to address the following issues:

     (1)  Whether expenditures from the wireless enhanced 911 fund by the wireless enhanced 911 board should be subject to legislative appropriation in the same manner as required by section 346-51.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

     (2)  Recommendations for other forms of legislative oversight of the wireless enhanced 911 board or other means of ensuring the board is accountable for its actions.

     (b)  Beginning 2014 and every five years thereafter as long as the wireless enhanced 911 fund remains in existence, the auditor shall submit a review of the fund.  The review shall include but not be limited to the criteria set forth in section 37-52.3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, for the establishment and continuance of special funds.  The auditor shall submit a report of its review to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session following each year in which the review is required to be performed.

     SECTION 6.  In the annual report to be submitted to the legislature prior to the 2010 regular session pursuant to section 138-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the wireless enhanced 911 board shall explain, with reference to specific statutory provisions, under what authority it proposes to expend "the existing balance" of the wireless enhanced 911 fund "for projects to expand coverage in rural areas and in-building coverage, and other future technologies not yet identified," as stated in the board's annual report to the legislature submitted prior to the 2008 regular session.  The wireless enhanced 911 board shall also explain whether a private or public entity will acquire the property necessary for the proposed projects, whether the property will be acquired and held pursuant to lease or purchase, how the expense of construction, operation, and maintenance will be funded, and what entity will bear liability for any damages or loss incurred in connection with the construction, operation, and maintenance of the project.

     SECTION 7.  The wireless enhanced 911 board shall not expend the one-third of the balance of the wireless enhanced 911 fund, remaining after payment of expenses of administering the fund, that is made available for wireless provider cost recovery pursuant to section 138-5(c), Hawaii Revised Statutes, other than for reimbursement of costs allowed to be recovered by wireless service providers pursuant to section 138-4(d), Hawaii Revised Statutes.

     SECTION 8.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 9.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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