A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to clarify and expand the allowed uses of money in the emergency telephone system fund for communications needs.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 62A‑8 reads as rewritten:
"§ 62A‑8.  Payments from Fund.
(a)	Money from the Emergency Telephone System Fund shall be used only to pay for:
(1)	The lease, purchase, or maintenance of emergency telephone and call processing equipment, including base stations, dispatch consoles, communications towers, and other equipment necessary for communications and direct interoperability between police, fire, rescue, and other emergency response units.
(2)	The rates associated with the service supplier's 911 service and other service supplier recurring charges. 
(3)	Necessary computer hardware, software and database provisioning, addressing, and nonrecurring costs of establishing and upgrading a 911  system.
(4)	Mobile and portable radio equipment that meets the requirements for direct interoperability of the Criminal Justice Information Network-Voice Trunked Network.
(5)	Mobile computers and wireless modems directly interoperable with the Criminal Justice Information Network.
(b)	The following expenses are not eligible for payment from the Fund:  
(1)	The lease or purchase of real estate.
(2)	Cosmetic remodeling of emergency dispatch centers.
(3)	Hiring and compensating dispatchers, and the purchase of mobile communications vehicles, ambulances, fire engines, or other emergency vehicles.
(c)	A local government may contract with a service supplier for any term negotiated by the service supplier and the local government and may make payments from the Emergency Telephone System Fund to provide any payments required by the contract. 
(d)	In order to maintain the efficiency of the emergency telephone system, cities and counties with greater than 100,000 population shall be allowed to use up to fifty percent (50%) of funds collected pursuant to this Article to establish a public service and information telephone system. All expenditures of funds collected pursuant to this Article for establishing a public service and information telephone system are subject to the provisions of this section."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 62A‑7 reads as rewritten:
"§ 62A‑7.  Emergency Telephone System Fund.
(a)	Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, the fiscal officer to whom 911 charges are remitted under G.S. 62A‑6 shall deposit all charges in a special revenue fund pursuant to G.S. 159‑26(b)(2). The Fund shall be known as the Emergency Telephone System Fund. The fiscal officer may invest money in the Fund in the same manner that other money of the local government may be invested. The fiscal officer shall deposit any income earned from such an investment in the Emergency Telephone System Fund.
(b)	The fiscal officer to whom 911 charges are remitted under G.S. 62A-6 shall remit twenty percent (20%) of the charges, upon receipt, to the General Fund to be appropriated only for uses permitted under G.S. 62A-8. Funds remitted pursuant to this subsection shall not be subject to any charge amount limitation imposed  in this Article."
SECTION 3.  Funds received by the General Assembly under Section 2 of this act shall be appropriated to the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety to be spent for the benefit of the State Highway Patrol only on uses permitted by G.S. 62A‑8. 
SECTION 4. This act becomes effective July 1, 2002, and applies to charges billed on or after that date.