Pueblo Police Chief Troy Davenport presented the fee increase to Pueblo City Council on Monday night.
Since 2009, the city of Pueblo has received 70 cents each month from phones linked to Pueblo, collected by the state Department of Revenue. Council s change raises the emergency 911 surcharge to $1.72 for each phone per month.
The maximum rate for emergency telephone charges is set by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which raised it to $1.72 in July last year due to the rate of inflation and increased statewide costs of providing service. All phone lines in Colorado are impacted, from cell phones to land lines. The surcharge is based on each phone line, no matter the provider. The increased cost is driven largely by the statewide migration to the new Emergency Services IP-Network (ESInet), which is provided by CenturyLink.