County Seeks Towns' Help on Funding VIPER System

As of Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Moore County faces a $4.5 million bill to install narrow band emergency communications — another unfunded mandate, this time from the Federal Communications Commission.

At a business retreat, the Board of Commissioners agreed to approach municipalities with a request to share a portion of the cost. The retreat was held Jan. 19-20 at the Senior Enrichment Center.

Although the deadline for implementation of the new system is not until Jan. 1, 2013, Scot Brooks, emergency communications manager, said the county has an earlier deadline with completion of the public safety-detention center complex later this year. He wants to make sure the connections are in place when the complex is occupied.

“We need to release the specs for the new 911 center as soon as possible,” Brooks told the board.

Since the bid process was opened this month, the total cost has been adjusted from more than $5 million to $4,488,652. The county is also applying for several grants, none of which is a sure thing.

Among the grants and funding sources under consideration are $689,348 from the 911 Fund, $46,400 in an Emergency Medical Services grant from the Mid Carolina Regional Advisory Committee, $27,000 from the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission, and $29,000 in equipment adjustments.

Even if all these grants and allocations are approved, the bill is still big, and the federal government has offered no financial assistance for this major FCC mandate.

Brooks submitted four funding options, each including a general fund appropriation along with allocations from the advanced life support (ALS) and fire taxes.

Two options provide for funding from municipalities that will be tied into the new system, with allocations ranging from $128,862 for Pinehurst and $110,793 for Southern Pines to $3,000 for Cameron.

Under one option, the municipalities would contribute more than $500,000, reducing the general fund allocation to $2.8 million. This option would take $1 million from the ALS tax, which is paid by all property owners in the county.

Municipalities would kick in $981,500 under another option, with $1 million from the ALS tax. This would cut the general fund allocation to $1.5 million-plus.

Property owners in municipalities pay taxes both to the county and their towns, but the commissioners reasoned that by sharing the cost, town residents would enjoy the same county tax rate benefit because the municipal share would cut the total coming from the general fund.

The greater the amount coming from the general fund, the greater is the prospect for a hike in the county tax rate, according to the board’s reasoning.

Board Chairman Larry Caddell suggested that the county send a letter to the municipalities offering them an opportunity to share in the cost of the project.

“And be sure to include language telling them that this is a government mandate,” Caddell added.

One option calls for the county to use general fund resources to pay all countywide start-up costs, an appropriation of $3,428,000 from the general fund. The remaining funds would include $1 million from the ALS fund and $60,652 from the undesignated portion of the E-911 fund.

Another option would take $2.3 million from the general fund and the same amounts from the ALS and E-911 funds, with the remaining $1,115,400 from fire district taxes. However, fire district taxes are an additional property tax for residents of fire districts, serving rural areas, including the unincorporated environs of many municipalities.

Such an allocation would thus entail a likely tax hike for property owners within the fire districts. Fire protection service within municipalities is incorporated into municipal budgets.

Brooks reminded the board that discussion of the change from broadband to narrow banding has been under way for two years. The board last year decided to opt for the VIPER system, which is the same system used by most neighboring counties, thus making it the most compatible system for Moore County.

VIPER (Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders) is managed by the State Highway Patrol for all responders across the state.

“It minimizes the amount of infrastructure the county has to manage,” Brooks said of the Highway Patrol management arrangement.

The FCC issued the changeover mandate because of recent increases in emergency communications channels and the need to keep the airways as open as possible because of growth in population and use of emergency communications equipment.

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wdd101st 4 months ago

Send the bill to the FCC. Any mandate not funded should be eliminated.

CSmithson 4 months ago

"Property owners in municipalities pay taxes both to the county and their towns, but the commissioners reasoned that by sharing the cost, town residents would enjoy the same county tax rate benefit because the municipal share would cut the total coming from the general fund. "

This makes no sense. I see no "enjoyment" here on the part of municipal residents. Municipal residents already account for over 50% of County property tax collections even though they represent a far smaller percentage of the county's population. Municipal residents already subsidize a number of County departments for which there are municipal overlaps.

Now, municipal residents are supposed to be thankful to provide additional subsidies for the County's last-minute VIPER adoption? Basically, municipal residents have ALREADY contributed over 50% of the fund balance that would be used to pay for VIPER. Now we're supposed to be thankful to contribute another 10-15% of the cost? Considering the per-capita dollars here, we're probably not even talking about "double taxation;"it is probably "triple taxation."

I don't even want to get into all the money the municipalities have already spent on upgrading to digital systems over the last few years only to have the rug pulled out from under them by the County's last-minute and incompatible VIPER decision. Oh, and with VIPER there's the possibility of an additional $10,000 PER VEHICLE cost to ensure our first responders' handheld units will work if they are inside a building...

Please tell me there was some "miscommunication" here...

tarheelborn 4 months ago

I was in attendance of this county meeting when the county voted on this Stupid, Unnecessary SO-CALLED Federal Mandate! This added Burden on our citizens in Not Necessary.... There are OTHER OPTIONS! I saw this coming a mile away and knew it was only a matter of time before the TOWNS Citizens Again have to PAY DOUBLE and pick up the tab!!! AGAIN, the citizens need to be EDUCATED! Request a copy of the minutes of said meeting and listen to the (Public Comment Session) . At this Point, (""I SUGGEST A READING OF THE MINUTES OF THAT MEETING"") in THIS Comment Stream! There were Very Knowledgeable speakers that evening and Everyone Needs to LISTEN to what they had to say... WASTE WASTE WASTE, Only to PAD the Pockets of Certain individuals and Owners of these companies! It just makes one sick to no end! I know what to do. Let's INSTALL TV CAMERAS wit SOUND and broadcast these meetings Around the Clock on a designated cable channel so our VOTING CITIZENS can SEE and HEAR Exactly Who and What is being Voted on ! Kinda like CSpan! That will do the job.....

tarheelborn 4 months ago

Sorry for the typo. "wit" should be "with". I'm not perfect either.

Bflat 4 months ago

Like just about everything that is "planned" in Moore County, what gets done is a last minute ramrod of whatever certain Commissioners feel like doing. One would think that this item would be in the budget since they knew about it for a while.

fish 4 months ago

Even though it is another unfunded mandate to go narrow band in the emergency communications band, it is not necessary to spend a million dollars on a STATE VIPER. It would help the tax payers in this county to fix or update the system we have that most fire department have already done for a few thousands of dollars. Why should towns that have already updated their systems now have to pay for a COUNTY and STATE system? Not all counties in the state are going to this high dollar VIPER system. They are staying with their own county low cost system. Why does the county have so much money in the ALS-EMS fund that they have to disturb or lower the volunteer fire departments budget? It states that VIPER is managed by the State Highway Patrol for all responders, this is not true. There are counties in the state that have elected not to go on the VIPER system that is true. This county has a lot of money and why can’t they keep their system running? Other counties that are less fortunate are staying with their system and keeping it running.