By Benjamin Lanka
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. — Allen County leaders want a new revenue source from the state to help balance a multimillion-dollar operational deficit for its emergency call center and a $14 million upgrade to the system.
The county commissioners Monday presented their 2011 state legislative agenda to area legislators. Much of the focus was on 911 fees paid by phone users to help cover the cost of the city and county emergency dispatch center.
Beth Lock, county director of government affairs, said it costs about $7 million to operate the city-county dispatch department, but it only receives $2.4 million in revenue from the fees. She said the rest has to be paid by property taxes.
“We would like to see the 911 user fees cover that budget,” she said.
The city and county also face a $14 million upgrade to their emergency radio system, which must be completed by 2012.
The main problem is how to cover those fees. Lock said there are several options being discussed, but County Commissioner Nelson Peters acknowledged there is no consensus on how to raise fees. He said there isn’t enough information to determine how fees on mobile phones would affect revenue.
Sen. David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said he understands the concern by counties about the issue but added it would be difficult to approve any increase to taxes or fees. He said the county needs to get better information and counties across the state need to coalesce around an idea for how to raise the money for such a proposal to gain traction this year.
Stacey O’Day, county assessor, also proposed changing the laws to allow counties to reassess a fifth of the county’s properties each year. Current law requires all the parcels in a county to be inspected at the same time every fifth year.
She said breaking this task up over five years will be more cost- effective for counties and lead to better assessments.
She said the current law requires her staff to inspect 400 parcels per day during reassessments, which is not reasonable.
County officials also pushed for the expansion of vote centers to give counties the option of reducing the number of places voting takes place.
They also proposed changing therequirement to establish a common wage for every public project to simply establishing that wage quarterly for all projects.
Long said while the session will be busy next year, he sees no reason legislators can’t deal with some local issues.
He said the main job of the legislature will be to balance the budget without raising taxes or cutting education, which will require cuts in other areas of state government.
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