New monthly phone fee proposed for Clark County emergency upgrades

Clark County is proposing a monthly fee of $1 per telephone line to help offset costs of 911 infrastructure improvements.

If approved, the surcharge would take effect on April 1, according to an ordinance draft.

Telephone providers would collect the fees and then transfer them to the county, the draft said.

A Nevada bill that passed this year tripled to $15 million the amount of uncommitted money the county’s surcharge fund could have at the end of each fiscal year.

The county measure would “ensure that the 9-1-1 emergency response system provides efficient, interoperable, and technologically advanced public safety communications,” the draft said.

Users with switchboards would pay $10 a month for each “telephone trunk line,” according to the proposal.

Last week, Clark County Fire Department Chief Billy Samuels told commissioners that the region’s 911 system was long overdue for modernization because it can be affected, in part, by incidents out of the county’s control.

The current analog system has gone down in recent times, including a crash last year that lasted more than three hours after tree roots broke a line in Missouri, Samuels said.

Although a backup system kicked in that day, emergency responders lost about 25 percent of the calls, he said.

Upgrading to a digital system, for example, would allow 911 callers to send video and text messages and provide emergency responders with more accurate pinpoint locations, Samuels said.

Rich Hoggan, Metropolitan Police Department’s CFO, told state lawmakers earlier this year that the surcharge fund could help pay for a proposed regional joint communication center.

“Those funds would potentially, with this change, allow us to use some revenue to offset the cost of constructing that facility,” he said during a bill hearing, “probably not entirely but at least in part.”

A committee, which would be created with the ordinance, would advise commissioners on what projects surcharge fees could fund, Samuels explained.

Clark County’s Department of Business License notified the proposed ordinance on Nov. 6, informing businesses and “interested parties” that they have until Dec. 16 to provide feedback.

Public comments can be emailed to publiccommentccbl@clarkcountynv.gov. The Nevada Telecommunications Association and T-Mobile had previously opposed a proposed surcharge to fund bodycam programs but have not weighed in on this program. The association said it was polling its members, and Verizon and T-Mobile could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

The surcharge authority was made possible through previous laws.

The 2025 Nevada Legislature approved increasing the threshold from uncommitted dollars from $5 million.

The legislation also expanded how the funds can be used, including to pay “any costs associated with the construction, maintenance or operation of the portion of a facility that contains a telephone system for reporting an emergency,” according to the bill.

Those dollars can also fund body-worn cameras.

In 1995, the federal government allowed for 911 surcharges for jurisdictions with more than 700,000 residents, which Clark County didn’t allow at the time, Samuels said.

When Nevada allowed a fee of 25 cents in 2011, the county didn’t do it, he explained.

Six years later, state lawmakers increased the allowed fee to $1, but Clark County also passed on it, Samuels added.

Now, “we’re in a point in our 911 dispatching systems that we have a gap and a shortcoming,” he said.

If Clark County has more than $15 million uncommitted dollars in the fund at the end of a fiscal year, it has to reduce the amount charged the following year, according to the state bill.

County commissioners will be briefed on the proposed ordinance’s feedback in early January, which will be followed by a public hearing as early as two weeks later, according to a spokesperson.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.