By Roy Bragg, San Antonio Express-News
Original publication date: March 31, 2011

San Antonio, Texas — A state-proposed $478,000 cut to 911 programs in rural counties near San Antonio won’t affect the number of first responders, but it might mean they can’t react as effectively.

As spelled out at a lightly attended meeting of county judges Wednesday, the two-year funding rollback would affect emergency response systems in Atascosa, Bandera, Frio, Gillespie, Karnes, Kendall and Wilson counties. As suggested by legislative budget writers, that money would instead be used to help balance the state budget.

That loss of funds, said Mike Quinn, Alamo Area Council of Governments public safety director, translates to older equipment, no reimbursement for training, no maintenance for related equipment, and geo-location databases that aren’t kept up to date.

The exact amount of the shortfall might change, Quinn told the county judges. “This isn’t set in stone, and it presents a worst-case scenario.”

Officials weren’t pleased.

“We’re very concerned,” said Bandera County Judge Richard Evans, a member of the AACOG judges committee that administers local 911 funds. “Emergency response is one of our primary responsibilities. Ninety percent of (Bandera County residents) don’t live in cities, and this is important to them.”

“It’s just more of the same,” said Gillespie County Judge Mark Stroeher.

“More of (the state’s) unfunded mandates. They sit there and beat their chests about not raising taxes and then they pass it down to us, and we have to raise taxes and take the heat.”

He added, “It’s just immoral. It’s just wrong.”

The cuts will be felt across Texas, said an official with the Commission on State Emergency Communications, which disperses funding to regional organizations such as AACOG.

In a phone interview, Kelli Merriweather, the commission’s director of programs, said the Legislative Budget Board has suggested cutting $33.9 million – from $121.9 million to $88 million – from the total distributed to rural emergency response systems.

The 911 money comes from long-distance surcharges and the 50-cent fee assessed monthly on each land line and wireless phone in Texas, said Patsy Greiner, also with the commission, who attended Wednesday’s meeting.

In the past, Greiner said, all the funds were doled out. This year, the money from wireless phone fees wasn’t included in the revenue estimate the commission will work with. Using accounting tricks, a large portion of the funds earmarked for 911 systems will be kept in reserve so the state budget, at least on paper, will be balanced as required by the Texas Constitution.

The impact of the cuts would be felt immediately, Merriweather said, so the seven counties got permission Wednesday to buy $250,000 worth of new networking equipment with funds from the current budget.

The idea, Quinn said, was to get the counties newer equipment while money was available. 

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