The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania realizes that 911 funding needs to be reformed.

Earlier this week, CCAP announced its top 10 priorities for the year with 911 funding and system reform coming in as its top priority.On Thursday, the Carbon County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution supporting CCAP's position, which urges the state General Assembly to amend Chapter 53 of Title 35 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, relating to emergency telephone services.One current funding source, Act 56, which collects fees from wireless phones, is set to end June 30, and counties are saying things need to change with this to help support growing requirements on their 911 communications centers.Carbon County Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that if legislation isn't approved that makes changes to the fees collected by the time Act 56 sunsets, then it will create large financial burdens."It would be a really big hardship on all the counties," he said, noting that Act 56 funds collected come from wireless phones, and go to the state instead of to the counties. Counties must then apply for a portion of the funds."We're asking PEMA and the legislators to move rapidly on this legislation to help give counties money to operate."Gary Williams, director of the Carbon County 911 Communication Center, said that the county has seen a shift in the types of phones calls come in on, which then affects the amount of funding that comes into Carbon.According to the 911 call breakdown annual report, in 2014, only 10,446 calls came in on landlines, while 22,516 were wireless and 113,401 came in on other types of phone lines such as Skype.That means that funding from Act 78, which is a $1.50 fee collected for landlines and given directly to the county, is decreasing as well."We (counties) are hoping they come up with a new basic law on how to collect fees from all electronic devices that can call 911," Williams said."We need to touch everything, iPads, iPods, Skype, anything that can call 911 because we're losing money because everyone is getting rid of landlines and going wireless."They need to look at collecting more fees for wireless and at a formula for counties to obtain that money," he continued. "We need some consistency on what we get from the state and they need to allow the money to be used for more projects like equipment to give the public what they need."Nothstein said that on the county level, the fees coming in through Act 78 have not kept up with the equipment requirements, meaning that the county taxpayers are responsible for bridging the gap.Last year, the 911 center's revenues were $1,055,444 and expenses totaled $1,591,476.That left a deficit of $536,032.Of that total, $146,810 was covered by municipalities, who are charged a fee for services; approximately $20,000 was collected for alarm monitoring and the remaining $368,779 was covered through taxpayer dollars.Nothstein and Williams said that the costs are going to continue to rise as well, with equipment upgrading requirements on the horizon.Williams said that the state will be requiring counties to upgrade to the Next Generation 911 system, which will allow dispatchers to receive text and video emergency calls.Williams said that the new system will require phone upgrades, changing voice recorders to make sure they can handle text and videos and more."These are big ticket items," he said, adding that he believes these changes will be required in the next five years.