I came across this article and thought I would share…..

On January 29th the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved a new Emergency Response and Disaster Preparedness 9-1-1 fee that will be paid by each telephone subscriber in the county. If you have a cell, home or office phone line you can expect to start seeing the fee on your monthly bill by May of this year. The 9-1-1 fee was first proposed as part of Santa Clara County’s 2007-08 Budget by the County Executive. At January’s meeting the final vote on the fee was 4-1. Supervisor Pete McHugh voted no because he believed this is not a fee but a tax that voters should have the right to vote on.The 9-1-1 fee will be imposed on every telephone line within the county, which provides a telephone subscriber with direct or indirect access to the county’s emergency communications response and disaster preparedness services. The fee will recover a portion of the county’s costs to continue to operate and maintain its 9-1-1 emergency communications functions and to continue countywide efforts to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. 

The components of the fee will vary by city depending on the level of emergency communications services received by the community. Fees will also be charged at different rates for single access lines, trunk lines and high capacity trunk lines to reflect differences in the benefit derived by each type of access.  Trunk lines are most often used in offices and each represent approximately 24 phone lines.  Prices for a single line will range from as little as .20 to $1.00.  The lowest trunk line fee is $1.80 and can go over $5

Annual revenue from fees is estimated at $9,368,179. Last year, the county faced a several hundred million dollar budget deficit, and is expected to do the same this year. This fee has already been accounted for as revenue in this year’s budget and will help ease the budget deficit for next year. .

Source: Silicon Valley Assouciation of Realtors.