Garland County has started receiving revenue from the increased public safety charge wireless providers began collecting from customers in October.
The $1.30 monthly charge enabled by the Public Safety Act of 2019 supports 911 service. The 2019 law increased the charge from 65 cents and imposed a 10% fee on prepaid wireless service. The fee for prepaid service was 65 cents.
The county and city of Hot Springs both operate public safety answering points. The PSAPs receive 911 calls and dispatch emergency personnel. PSAPs have to operate on a 24-hour basis and dispatch two or more public safety agencies to receive support from the public safety charge, according to the 2019 law.
The county's 911 communications center in the booking area of the old county jail dispatches the sheriff's department and the county's volunteer fire departments. The city's 911 center in the police department dispatches the city's police and fire personnel. The city has said the incompatibility of its computer-aided dispatch system software with software the county uses makes consolidating the city and county PSAPs impractical and cost-prohibitive.
Garland County's 2020 budget projected $676,000 in revenue from public safety charge payments. The money goes to the county's emergency 911 fund, with a population-based share distributed to the city. Based on payments from the final quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of this year, the county's Department of Emergency Management projected the county will receive $1.6 million to $1.7 million in public safety fees this year.
DEM assumed responsibility for the county's 911 service from the sheriff's department in 2018.
The Garland County Quorum Court increased the 911 fund's projected revenue by $900,000 and appropriated an additional $400,000 to the city's per capita distribution Monday night. The appropriation increased the city's annual distribution to more than $546,000.
The county's 2020 budget appropriated $746,697 from the general fund for 911 operations, the county's finance department said. County Judge Darryl Mahoney said he's hopeful increased revenue from the public safety charge will make the 911 fund self-supporting.
"Every 911 center across the state has been supplemented out of the general fund since the inception of these PSAPs around the state," he said. "Now they're moving toward being a stand alone, to where they don't have to draw money from the general fund anymore. When the 911 system was established, that was part of it. They had to be self-supporting, and we're finally getting to that point. And I'm proud of it."
The county finance department said quarterly public safety payments were between $150,000 and $160,000 prior to the 2019 law. In March, the county received a $339,390 payment for the fourth quarter of last year. In June, it received a $419,980 payment for the first quarter of this year.
Mahoney said he wants to see subsequent quarterly payments before he asks the quorum court to repurpose general fund money earmarked for 911.
"I'd like to get a little more history on our receipts since we've only gotten two checks so far," he said." It looks like we may be in the black, or just very little in the red. I'm hoping it will wind up even. Given the two numbers we've gotten so far, it looks like it will be in the black."