Officials in Iroquois County are worried about the financial future of the emergency telephone system that serves nearly 30,000 people, spread out in the third largest county in Illinois.
Nita Dubble, 911 coordinator for the county, has reported that the Emergency Telephone System Board, which has provided one-third of the emergency system funding, is running out of revenue.
Traditional land-line telephones are taxed $2 per month for 911 purposes, but people have been trading home phones for cellphones, which are taxed at only 73 cents per month.
Beyond those losses, Gov. Pat Quinn swept $9 million in telephone taxes into the general fund for other uses last year, costing Iroquois County $40,000, according to County Board Chairman Rod Copas, of Onarga.
"This is an ongoing problem because the state is pushing more funding responsibility on local government," he said.
The county, the city of Watseka and the ETSB each have provided about $136,000 per year for the operation of the 911 system, Copas said.
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