Nearly two weeks ago, the FCC released its most recent annual report on how 911 fees collected by states and other territories are spent. According to the Ninth Report, it is suspected that six states or territories diverted 911 fees for non-911 purposes in 2016, including Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. New York, which did not submit data for calendar year 2016, was nonetheless found to have diverted funds, as it had done in years past. In addition to wanting to learn of other instances of fee-diversion, the Commission seeks comment on potential ways to dissuade states and other jurisdictions from instituting 911 fee diversion. FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly has sent a letter to the Governor of New York and the governors of six other states or territories which did not respond to last year’s data-collection effort requesting them to “remedy” their failures to respond to the Commission’s inquiry on 9-1-1 fee diversion. Furthermore, he has requested answers to the following three questions: (1) why did your state or territory fail to respond to the Commission’s request for information regarding the collection and allocation of 911 fees for 2016?; (2) what steps has your state or territory taken, if any, to rectify the failure to file and provide the FCC the information requested?; and (3) does your state or territory divert 9-1-1 fees to other functions, and if so, how much was diverted in 2016, and for what functions? The governors of these seven jurisdictions, which includes American Samoa, Guam, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, New York, and Puerto Rico, were not given a deadline by which they must respond.
