Tax Day is around the corner, and many residents will be filing for the new federal telephone tax refund found on their forms. But if some at City Hall have their way, San Diegans may soon be paying a 9-1-1 phone tax that will leave some wanting to cut their cords.
Last summer, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would no longer require phone users to pay the federal excise tax (FET) on their long-distance telephone bills. The FET was originally a “war tax” on the wealthy, used to finance the Spanish-American War over a hundred years ago when phone service was a luxury few could afford. However, generations of federal lawmakers have benefited from this multi-billion dollar cash cow, a profitable scheme which some in the cash-strapped halls of the City of San Diego appear open to adopting.
This March, the City of San Diego’s Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) released a dozen new fee proposals before the City Council’s Committee on Budget & Finance for shoring up revenue for government coffers. Among the largest was the 9-1-1 surcharge, a $3 monthly fee on landlines and cell phones which would rake in more than $15 million each year. By calling the surcharge a fee for emergency response service, city leaders can duck state taxpayer protections, pass the policy and raise rates without voter approval. Despite the ease and lucrative nature of this back door city tax, a closer look at other 9-1-1 fee schemes reveals it is a poor policy that will cost San Diegans more than they’ve bargained for.
San Francisco’s 9-1-1 phone tax was originally adopted by county supervisors in 1993 as a temporary fifty-cent surcharge for the limited purposes of paying for critical emergency communications equipment upgrades and a new building for 9-1-1 dispatchers. However, with costs soaring for the building, the 9-1-1 fee was quietly doubled by lawmakers, changed from temporary to permanent, and legally broadened to pay for operating costs and a government contract for a $50 million dollar radio system. Subsequently, the fee has been steadily increased during general city budget crunches, to the rates today of $2.75 per access line, $20 per trunk line, and $371 per high capacity line. As San Francisco bureaucrats play politics with phone users and dial for dollars under the name of 9-1-1, Sacramento lawmakers haven’t been too far behind.
San Diegans already pay a statewide 9-1-1 fee, known as the California Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge. This fee was intended to pay for upgrades to local emergency communications networks but Sacramento legislators have raided it for non-related programs, to the tune of more than $100 million. The question, then, must be posed: should City residents have to pay twice to ensure their 9-1-1 service, because neither local nor state government officials are able to get their fiscal house in order?
Using the good name of the 9-1-1 emergency communications system for political gain is irresponsible and erroneous. Mayor Jerry Sanders and members of the City Council would be wise to reject this tax and future efforts to revive it down the path of fiscal recovery. Rather than add new tax pain onto phone users, public officials should focus their political energies towards tackling the core structural problems within local government that annually bloat budgets and increase public spending.
The needs of the City’s 9-1-1 emergency system should be evaluated on their own merits, not through the prism of general budgetary needs. If lawmakers don’t hang up on disingenuous tax schemes, voters may hang up on them.
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