A version of this story first ran in Talk of the Town, a newsletter by Spotlight PA’s State College regional bureau of local stories that dig deep, events, and more from north-central PA. Sign up at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/talkofthetown.
Pennsylvania lawmakers once again declined to increase the state’s 911 surcharge in this year’s budget, leaving counties to cover rising costs for emergency call centers on their own.
The surcharge — a monthly, flat-rate phone fee Pennsylvanians pay to support emergency services — helps cover the costs of personnel, technology, and maintenance of 61 call centers operating statewide. But according to 2024 data from the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, counties end up covering almost 20% of those expenses themselves.
The association advocated for increasing the monthly surcharge from $1.95 to $2.20 in the 2026-27 budget for all landline, wireless, and internet phones.
Lisa Rice, director of Tioga County’s 911 center, started as a part-time dispatcher in 1994 — back when there were no computers and the role relied on handwritten notes and physical maps. Her sparsely populated county already struggles to keep up with infrastructure costs, and they also support Potter County, making their dispatch center one of the largest in the commonwealth.
The center is still fully operational, but has funding gaps that affect everything from staffing to technological upgrades. While the latest proposed surcharge wouldn’t have totally covered costs for Rice, it would’ve helped lessen the strain on her county.
CCAP Executive Director Kyle Kopko was surprised that the increase didn’t make it into Pennsylvania’s $50.8 billion budget that passed in early July. He told Spotlight PA that dozens of counties and municipalities across the commonwealth reached out to members of the legislature and the governor’s office.
“We’ve had a pretty strong grassroots effort here where a lot of local officials took this upon themselves to reach out to their local lawmakers and leadership to express their concerns, because we never want the system to falter,” Kopko said. “It has to operate without fail every time.”
The surcharge model was first created in 1990 and set at $1.00 but has only increased twice in the past three decades — in 2015 to $1.65 and in 2023 to its current rate of $1.95. Even still, the 2023 increase only avoided the “worst-case scenario,” according to previous reporting from Spotlight PA.
“Governor Shapiro knows municipal and county governments are on the frontlines of keeping our communities safe — that’s why he secured a $47.7 million increase in state funding for the 911 system in his first budget, and has secured continued funding in the last three state budgets,” Rosie Lapowsky, spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, told Spotlight PA in an email, referring to the 2023 increase. “While that is a significant step forward, the final product reflects the realities of working with one of the only divided legislatures in the entire country — the Governor will continue to build on that work and fight to fund critical needs, including more support for our first responders and the 911 system.”
State House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) and Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) didn’t respond to requests for comment.
No less than 83% of the surcharge funding goes to counties, with the vast majority allocated proportionally based on population total and density, and square miles. Up to 15% is used for statewide interconnectivity of 911 systems, and up to 2% can be retained by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for administrative costs related to the statute.
The surcharge raised $375 million in total revenue in 2024, according to data from the county association. However, the total reported costs that year were $455 million.
“They don’t know how important it is,” Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins said about the need for a surcharge increase. “People just don’t pay attention. They think, ‘Oh, it’s government. It’ll work. Everything will be fine.’ No one wants to think about the amount of infrastructure it takes behind the scenes to have an effective 911 system.”
The association has long called for an increase to the 911 surcharge, amid inflation that has pinched current budgets.
“We’re all being good stewards of public dollars,” Kopko said, referring to the ask for a higher surcharge rate. “Every CCAP member understands that, and so we’re trying to be as thoughtful as possible, while also ensuring that we have the resources in place for one of these most critical functions of county government.”
It’s still possible for the legislature to take up a standalone bill, but until then, counties will continue to shoulder the deficit out of their general funds, and potentially raise property taxes.