Local dispatch centers short-changed by new state budget

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The people who answer our calls for help say they could use some help themselves.

Local dispatch centers like La Crosse, which operate separately from law enforcement agencies, are not getting a cut of Wisconsin’s new 75-cent monthly telephone fee that’s going to local police and fire departments.

The fee was included in the new state budget, with the idea of helping cash-strapped local governments.

But unlike police and fire departments, Al Blencoe of the La Crosse County Emergency Services agency says 911 centers don’t get steady grants for training and new equipment. But that could be changing.

First, the 75-cent phone fee is scheduled to be diverted to 911 centers in two years.

And the state Senate added a 911 grant program to the new budget that would start in July of 2011.

But in the meantime, La Crosse Emergency Services director Jay Loeffler says Wisconsin will miss out on national 911 grants, because the funds from the new state phone fee would not be devoted totally to dispatch operations.

Tags: dispatch centers, state budget, wisconsin