Phone Bill Fees May Increase In PA To Support 911 And State Suicide Hotline

PENNSYLVANIA — Lawmakers in the Pennsylvania House approved an increased phone surcharge for residents, in an effort to bolster county 911 services and the state's 988 suicide hotline.

House Bill 1304 would increase the assessed $1.65 surcharge for 911 services to $1.97 on Pennsylvanian’s phone bills. The additional $30.4 million this would generate next year is expected to support equipment, operations, and new technology. The uniform 911 surcharge would end in 2019.

The House also passed House Bill 1305, creating a new six-cent fee for the state suicide hotline, and estimate this will generate $5.5 million in the next year to help fund call center operations and staffing.

Both fees would adjust annually, based on inflation.

Both measures now head to the state Senate; the surcharges would take effect in January of 2024 if they are approved by both chambers of the House.

Some county leaders in Pennsylvania have called for the 911 surcharge to be increased to $2.30, with a 15-cent increase each year until reauthorization. And according to the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, there has not been an increase in mental health base funds for county governments since 2008.

“Pennsylvania residents have waited long enough while the impacts of 15 years of not keeping pace with increases have unraveled the county mental health system," said George Hartwick, Dauphin County Commissioner and Chair of the CCAP Human Services Committee.

The CCAP is calling for urgent action on 911 reauthorization, saying even a one-year delay at the current funding level would mean counties have to fund more than one third of their 911 systems with county property tax dollars.

“911 is the backbone of emergency response. We don’t think about it unless we need it, but when we need it, we want it to be there, we want it to work efficiently and effectively, and we want trained dispatchers on the other end who can get us the help we need as quickly as possible,” said Mark Hamilton, Tioga County commissioner and Co-Chair of the CCAP Emergency Management and Veteran Affairs Committee.