BATON ROUGE—A proposed monthly surcharge for 911 services in East Baton Rouge Parish could increase as early as June 1.
The East Baton Rouge Communications District is scheduled to hold a special board meeting on May 31 to vote on the increase, which would be the first since 2005.
The change is estimated to cost residential landline customers an additional $4.32 per year. Wireless customers could pay $4.80 more annually, while business landline customers could be paying $5.88 more per year.
The fee increase was proposed to help offset costs from a 62 percent increase in call volume to 911 for emergency services between 2019 and 2022. The fee would also assist in covering infrastructure costs for handling a larger number of 911 calls originating from cell phones. It is part of a plan outlined by the Federal Communications Commission, which requires public safety officials to field a new generation of 911 emergency call services for better locating those in need of emergency assistance.
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