Wheeling seeks to increase 9-1-1 surcharge

Wheeling will ask its residents to support a 70-cents-per-month hike to the 9-1-1 surcharge to help pay for its emergency dispatch services.

Officials plan to place a referendum question on the Feb. 2, 2010, primary ballot.

The village now receives less than $400,000 in revenues from the current 75-cent per month village surcharge on land telephone lines and its share of the state-administered wireless surcharge.

That money is used entirely to pay for police and fire dispatch services operated out of two centers, employees' salaries and benefits, radios, equipment and mapping.

Yet, it's not enough to cover the rising costs of equipment maintenance and technology upgrades, officials said.

"It's imperative and important that we pass that," Wheeling Village President Judy Abruscato. "In a year or two, we would have to start taking the money from the general fund in order to take care of 9-1-1."

The village's 9-1-1 surcharge was established in 1989 and hasn't been raised since. It helped pay for the initial infrastructure for the village 9-1-1 dispatch center.

"Since then, that equipment has been replaced several times as technology has improved and electronics have changed," Wheeling Fire Chief Keith MacIsaac said. "There's insufficient money to pay for that upkeep and all of those services strictly out of the monies that we're receiving."

The new surcharge would be $1.45 per phone connection. Residents now paying $8 a year for the surcharge fees would pay $8.40 more yearly if the referendum passes.

"It's less than the cost of a Happy Meal," MacIsaac said. "We're asking them for 2 cents more a day to continue to provide 9-1-1 service at its current level. It's a fee specifically tied to a service that the residents want."

In 2008, voters rejected a request to increase the surcharge by 70 cents a month.

If denied again, MacIsaac said 9-1-1 calls would still get answered, but there may be fewer dispatches of staff.

"The service will continue," he said. "It may not continue at its current level or current format. What it's going to force us to do is make cuts in village services somewhere else or you have to raise money somewhere else."

Village officials already are considering raising taxes next year to plug an anticipated $5.3 million budget deficit.

Officials might raise the village's hotel/motel tax from 5 to 6 percent and increase the property tax levy by 15 percent, said Michael Mondschain, Wheeling director of finance and administration.