FEE FORWARDING

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Winter 2009 by Breidenbach, Michelle

Service charge for 911 bolsters other agencies

If you have cell phone service in New York, then you pay $1.20 every month to the state government for a fine-print charge that says "911 Service Fee."

But only 6 cents ends up at a county 911 center. The Post-Standard reported in September that the state keeps most of that money and spends it on salaries, overtime, travel, cars, boots, sunblock, groceries and snowshoes at everything from the state prisons to the parks department.

The state first started collecting the money to buy new equipment for dispatchers to be able to find people who called 911 from cell phones. But once cell phone customers got used to paying a little more for their bills each month, the state started sweeping the steady revenue stream into its general fund and other accounts.

If your state is like New York, then there could be many similar stories buried in the fine print on your receipts for new tires or concert tickets. In New York, for example, the state charges small fees each time you register a snowmobile or buy a dog license. You can look up the original intent of these fees and ask the state how it spends the money.

Notice the tipoff

State leaders drew attention to the cell phone fee when they decided that the money intended for 91 1 centers would be a good way to finance a new $2 billion statewide wireless communication system. The vendor could not get the system to work, so first responders such as police and firefighters were quickly losing confidence in it.

The $2 billion expense involved emergency services, but it was a stretch from the original purpose of the cell phone fee. How could the state take money from cell phone users who thought they were funding new 911 equipment?

To report this story, I turned first to the people who write the checks.

Former state comptroller H. Carl McCaII audited the fund in 2002 and criticized the state police for using the money to have their uniforms dry cleaned. I asked staff of new comptroller Thomas DiNapoli what had happened to the fund in the past five years.

They provided a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that showed broad categories for spending by agency. It showed state spending on travel, conferences, dry cleaning and fringe benefits, among other things. But it only raised more questions. Why, for instance, was the Department of Agriculture and Markets spending 911 money?

I asked the comptroller's office for more detail. I wanted the name of each vendor, each agency, the amount spent and the purpose. I discovered expenses at pizza shops, convenience stores, laundry services and cell phone providers.

The comptroller's office provided this information quickly at no cost and without requiring a Freedom of Information request. For specific contracts, the staff required an FOI request. That took longer but still resulted in free electronic copies of documents.

Make an investment

The comptroller's records raised enough questions for me to make a pitch to my editor to continue the investigation. I then turned to the agencies that spend the money.

The Department of State is responsible for distributing the cell phone revenue to the counties. That agency faxed to me a list of payments to each county for the past five years. When I asked for copies of grant applications as well, the agency said it would cost $2,250.1 withdrew that request because I knew I could look at applications from the counties if I needed them.

As it often does, New York state leveraged the 911 revenue into a loan.

When the state Legislature and the governor want to borrow money without the required voter approval, they turn to a public authority originally set up to finance the construction of college dorms. The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York acts as the state's offshore bank. That public authority issued $100 million in bonds for the counties to buy equipment. I asked the Dormitory Authority for a list of grant amounts to each county and for information about the terms of the bonds.

Instead of using its steady and growing stream of cash to buy new equipment, the state agreed to borrow money at 3 to 5 percent interest and committed cell phone customers to the fee until at least 201 6.

Follow the money

I did the math. Of the $204.1 million the state would collect from cell phone customers in 2008, $10 million would go to a local 911 center. That amounted to 6 cents of the $1.20 charged every month.

I called David Koon, a Rochester-area legislator who advocated for the state to charge this fee. Dispatchers listened helplessly to the last 20 minutes of his daughter's life when she dialed 911 from her cell phone and they couldn't find her. Jennifer Koon was abducted from a suburban shopping mall, raped and shot in 1993.

Koon said the fee had become just another revenue stream for the state. "People are so used to paying that $1.20 to the state every month that nobody really pays too much attention to it," he said.

Of course, one option is for the state to remove the fee from cell phone bills. The people who run the county 911 centers said dispatchers now have enough basic equipment to find people who dial 911 from cell phones. But they said there is always new equipment to buy and staff to be trained.