Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act.

The Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act generally imposes a surcharge on amounts paid by every person in the state for intrastate telephone communication service and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service that provides access to the 911 emergency system. Under the act, the surcharge is imposed at a percentage rate not less than 0.5% nor more than 0.75% of those charges that the Office of Emergency Services annually estimates, pursuant to a specified formula, will produce sufficient revenue to fund the current fiscal year's 911 costs, including the costs it expects to incur to plan, test, implement, and operate Next Generation 911 technology and services, as specified. Existing law requires the surcharge to be collected by a service supplier, and remitted to, and administered by, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. Existing law makes certain violations of the Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act a crime. This bill would amend the Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act to instead impose, on and after January 1, 2020, a surcharge on each access line for each month or part thereof for which a service user subscribes with a service supplier, at an amount no greater than $0.80, based on the Office of Emergency Services' estimate of the number of access lines to which the surcharge will be applied per month for a calendar year period, that it estimates, pursuant to a specified formula, will produce sufficient revenue to fund the current fiscal year's 911 costs. The bill, on and after January 1, 2020, would impose a surcharge on the purchase of prepaid mobile telephony services at the time of each retail transaction in this state, at the rate equal to the monthly surcharge amount per access line, to be paid by prepaid consumers and collected by sellers, as defined. The bill would require the surcharges to be remitted to, and administered by, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, in accordance with the Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act, except as specified. By expanding the scope of crimes imposed by the Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires amounts to be paid to the state pursuant to the Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act to be deposited into the State Emergency Telephone Number Account, and that the amounts deposited, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be spent solely for specified purposes, including payment for the installation of, and ongoing expenses for, a basic system. This bill would define a basic system to be 911 systems, including, but not limited to, Next Generation 911, and the subsequent technologies, and interfaces needed to deliver 911 voice and data information from the 911 caller to the emergency responder and the subsequent technologies, and interfaces needed to send information, including, but not limited to, alerts and warnings, to potential 911 callers. This bill would state that its provisions are severable. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.