[Adopted 9-6-2000]
As used in this article, unless the context
clearly requires a different meaning:
A telephone network capability that enables the automatic
display of information defining the geographical location of the telephone
used to place a wire line 9-1-1 call.
A telephone network capability that enables the automatic
display of the telephone number used to place a wire line 9-1-1 call.
A service consisting of telephone network features and public
safety answering points provided for users of telephone systems, enabling
such users to reach a PSAP by dialing the digits "9-1-1." Such service
automatically directs 9-1-1 emergency telephone calls to the appropriate
PSAPs by selective routing based on the geographical location from
which the emergency call originated and provides the capability for
ANI and ALI features.
Any public service company granted a certificate to furnish
public utility service for the provision of local exchange telephone
service pursuant to Chapter 10.1 (§ 56-265.1 et seq.) of
Title 56 of the Code of Virginia.
A communications facility associated with a Buchanan County
public safety agency, equipped and staffed on a twenty-four-hour basis
to receive and process 911 calls.
A.
The Buchanan County Board of Supervisors hereby finds
and declares that an E-911 service network linking the PSAPs serving
Buchanan County has been established with the county, or that such
a system will be established in the foreseeable future, and that imposition
of the E-911 tax is necessary at this time to accumulate revenues
to fund the creation and maintenance of such system.
B.
The revenues received by the county from the tax imposed
by this article shall be used solely to pay for the reasonable, direct
recurring and nonrecurring capital costs, and operating expenses incurred
by a public safety answering point in designing, upgrading, leasing,
purchasing, programming, installing, testing, administering, delivering
or maintaining all necessary data, hardware and software required
to receive and process emergency telephone calls through such E-911
system, including salaries and fringe benefits of dispatchers and
direct takers of the E-911 system and costs incurred in training dispatchers
and direct call-takers in receiving and dispatching emergency telephone
calls, and the salary and fringe benefits to the public safety answering
point director or coordinator so long as such person has no other
duties other than the responsibility for the public safety answering
point.
A special tax is hereby imposed on Buchanan
County consumers of the services furnished by local exchange carriers
certificated to provide wire line telephone services within the county.
Such tax is imposed at the maximum permissible rate of $3 per month
per customer access line, or at such lower monthly rate as the Buchanan
County Board of Supervisors shall establish from time to time to ensure
that the revenues collected do not exceed the amounts necessary to
accomplish the purposes for which such revenues may lawfully be used.
The local E-911 tax shall not be imposed on:
A.
Services furnished to federal, state or local government
agencies.
B.
Wireless telephone or commercial mobile radio services
that are subject to the Wireless E-911 surcharge imposed by the Commonwealth
of Virginia.
C.
Individual telephone service provided to residents
of nursing homes and similar adult-care facilities.
A.
It shall be the duty of each local exchange carrier
certificated to serve Buchanan County or areas thereof to bill and
collect the tax monthly on each customer access line that is subject
to the tax. The Buchanan County Administrator is authorized and directed
to notify all such carriers of the tax and of such changes in the
rate thereof as may be adopted from time to time.
B.
Each local exchange carrier shall report and pay over
all taxes collected in each calendar month to the Buchanan County
Treasurer by the last business day of the second calendar month thereafter.
The carrier shall be deemed to hold such collected taxes in trust
for the benefit of the county and the E-911 system until they are
remitted to the Treasurer.
C.
Each such local exchange carrier shall also report
monthly to the Treasurer the names and addresses of any customers
with service addresses in the county who have failed or refused to
pay the tax as billed. Each carrier's records of the billing and collection
of the local E-911 tax shall be available for inspection by the Treasurer
or other duly authorized agents of the county upon reasonable notice
and during normal business hours.
D.
As compensation for billing, collecting, accounting
for and remitting the local E-911 tax, each carrier shall be entitled
to deduct and keep 3% of the amount of the tax due and payable.
The County Administrator and Treasurer shall account for the local E-911 tax in a separate special revenue fund or by using a cost center and revenue accounting system acceptable to the State Auditor of Public Accounts. Revenues, expenditures and balances of such fund or cost center shall be reported in the manner required by § 15.2-2510 of the Code of Virginia and other applicable state laws or regulations. The annual independent audit of county funds shall include audit procedures, consistent with state requirements, to ensure that revenues from the E-911 tax are expended solely to pay eligible costs as defined in § 88-58 of this article and applicable provisions of state law.
Any telephone service customer who neglects,
fails or refuses to pay the tax imposed by this article, and any local
exchange carrier who neglects, fails or refuses to bin, collect, account
for and remit such tax as required by this article, shall be guilty
of a Class IV misdemeanor. Each day such neglect, failure or refusal
continues shall constitute a separate offense.
