A bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Josh Shapiro will raise the surcharge on cell phones that is allocated to counties to fund 911 operations.

According to a fiscal note on HB 1300, the $1.65 monthly surcharge will remain through Feb. 29, 2024.

The surcharge will rise to $1.95 starting on March 1 and continuing through Jan. 31, 2026.

The change is projected to generate $60 million in addition E-911 funding for counties.

Public Safety Director Ken McCorrison and Commissioner Ben Kafferlin both said it’s not yet clear how much the county will receive as a result of the increase.

The county commissioners have signaled their intent to approve a 2-mill tax increase as part of the 2024 budget and cited 911 funding as one of the rationales for the increase.

It does not appear that the surcharge increase will impact that tax increase.

“No model I saw was going to have the 911 surcharge completely cover the operational expense of our PSAP,” Kafferlin said Friday.

“PSAP” stands for “public safety answering point,” the legal term for the 911 center.

“Even if it did alleviate the entire cost,” Kafferlin said of the surcharge increase, “that would free up spending savings on operations. As a general principle, the county should not be taking from one time savings in order to cover ongoing operational expenses.”

Those one-time savings incorporated in balancing the 2024 budget include federal American Rescue Plan dollars and monies from the closure of the Grunderville Landfill.

“If the 911 funding covers more operational expenses, that’s helpful because we can revert to spending savings on the major capital needs the county faces,” Kafferlin suggested, “especially when it comes to the need for grant match for building 911 towers.”

The surcharge has not been increased since 2015. Commissioner Jeff Eggleston previously said that the funding stream from the surcharge used to cover most of the 911 service cost but said now the county has to kick in roughly $400,000 to cover the cost.

In addition to the surcharge increase, the bill also calls for an “efficiency study on 911 services” to be conducted by the Joint State Government Commission.

“That study will examine operations in other states, explore combining 911 services with other services such as the 998 suicide and crisis lifeline, and other related subjects,” the note states.

The review must be completed by Dec. 30, 2024.

Both State Rep. Kathy Rapp and State Sen. Scott Hutchinson voted in opposition of the bill.

An increase to the surcharge was inserted into a House bill which had an underlying focus on a long-term care facility issue. It was expanded to a broader Fiscal Code bill.