GTE Official Assails Phone Surcharge Bill

An official of GTE California, based in Thousand Oaks, says an Assembly bill that seeks to use a telephone bill surcharge to help fund various governmental programs is unfair and misleading.

The voluntary surcharge now pays for the 911 emergency system.

But under a bill proposed by Assemblyman Curtis Tucker (D-Inglewood), revenue from the charge would pay for ambulances, pre-hospital emergency care, a poison control center and the Department of Health Services’ administrative costs.

GTE opposes the bill, AB 230, saying that the charge is voluntary in name only.

Kenneth Okel, general counsel and vice president of GTE’s California region, said customers could only avoid paying the charge by giving written notice to phone companies in January of each year.

“If a customer were unaware of that deadline, missed that opportunity or subscribed to telephone service during any month other than January, the customer would be stuck paying the surcharge for that year,” Okel said.

The bill “tries to circumvent the provision in the California Constitution that requires two-thirds approval of all tax increases by the state Assembly and Senate,” he said.

Marissa Castro, an aide to Tucker, said the assemblyman believes that the surcharge would be better used to pay for other programs.

“We especially feel it’s important to channel the support to the ambulance transportation program,” Castro said. The 911 programs, she said, will not be endangered.

She disputed the contention that the charge amounts to a tax.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee last week set aside the bill, but will hear it again later.