County staff push state to free up 9-1-1 excise funds as dispatch faces rising costs

Okanogan County communications staff briefed commissioners Aug. 6 on 9-1-1 funding and operations, urging support for a state-level change that would let the state 9-1-1 office distribute more of funds already collected from the 95-cent-per-line excise tax. Communications Director Mark (last name not provided) told the board counties collect the local excise tax but the state has not been authorizing distribution at the same percentage of revenue that arrives; the standing operations contract the county receives from the state has effectively lost purchasing power because the reimbursement level has not kept pace with inflation and rising labor costs. —We re all not getting as far with the dollar that we've been getting,— Mark said, summarizing the state office ppeal that counties write letters asking lawmakers to allow the state 9-1-1 office to use a larger share of already-collected funds for operations. Mark told commissioners the county should consider sending a letter of support to the Washington state 9-1-1 office, a subunit of the Washington Military Department, asking that appropriations more closely match revenue so counties can purchase equipment and pay staffing costs that small counties face. He pointed to a roughly static operations reimbursement ($225,000) that has not been adjusted for inflation since 2012. Commissioners asked staff to prepare a draft letter for their review and discussed including data on rising personnel costs and the county ispatch center—udgeted shortfalls. Staff said any letter would be based on the state office raft sample letter and tailored to include local figures before being sent to legislators and the state 9-1-1 office. Ending: The board directed staff to draft a letter of support for the state 9-1-1 office to use a greater share of locally collected excise revenue for local operations; staff will return with a draft for commissioner approval.