LANSING – Users of prepaid wireless phones would have to pay a 911 surcharge when purchasing their phones and any future minutes under a bill reported unanimously Tuesday by the House Energy and Technology Committee.
HB 5468 would require a surcharge of 1.92 percent per retail transaction to help fund 911 services in counties across the state. The funds collected would then be distributed to those counties as are other 911 fees collected from other phones.
Rep. Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton), the bill sponsor, said it’s not a creation of a new tax, but the elimination of a tax on a tax.
Previously, the tax was charged at the wholesale level and customers then paid sales tax at the retail level, now both will be paid at the retail level.
Originally the bill would have ended the authorization counties have had since 2008 to collect a 911 tax on users, by repealing a 2014 sunset, but a substitute adopted was changed to instead extend the sunset to 2021.
Other changes to the original bill include making the effective date October 1.
Representatives from the Detroit Regional Chamber, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and the Michigan Association of Counties all supported the bill.
“It’s a critical service,” Nesbitt said, adding the lost revenue is estimated in the millions. “When we punch (911) into our phones, whether it’s a prepaid cell phone or whether it’s our cell phone or a landline, we expect somebody to answer on the other end.?
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