Budget — Salary and Expenses — Funding — Authorized Disbursements
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The board's budget shall be subject to approval by the general assembly.
No member of the board is entitled to a salary for duties performed as a member of the board. Each member is entitled to reimbursement for travel and other necessary expenses incurred in the performance of official duties, in accordance with the state comprehensive travel regulations as promulgated by the commissioner of finance and administration and approved by the attorney general and reporter.
The board shall be funded by the 911 surcharge established in § 7-86-128.
All current funds, including those funds currently in the 911 Emergency Communications Fund, funds collected by the board in future, and interest accrued on these funds shall be deposited in the state treasury in a separate interest-bearing fund to be known as the 911 Emergency Communications Fund. Disbursements from this fund shall be limited solely to the operational and administrative expenses of the board and the purposes as expressed in this part 3. At no time during its existence shall the 911 Emergency Communications Fund, or earnings derived thereof, be used to fund the general expenses of the state, except as authorized by this section. All interest or earnings derived from the fund shall be transferred to the fund when earned, and may be allocated by the board, in accordance with this chapter.
In order to maintain adequate 911 funding provided to emergency communications districts, the board shall annually distribute to each emergency communications district a base amount equal to the average of total recurring annual revenue the district received from distributions from the board and from direct remittance of 911 surcharges for fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012; however, in no event shall such distribution be less than the amount the district received in fiscal year 2012. On or before December 1, 2014, the board shall publish on its web site the base amount for each emergency communications district. The board may not reduce the base amount for any emergency communications district unless the local government funding for such emergency communications district is reduced, in which case the board may reduce the base amount by the same amount as the local funding reduction. Any emergency communication district established after January 1, 2015, shall be entitled to receive a base amount from the board in an amount determined by the board. Disbursal of the base amount to emergency communications districts shall be conducted in the following manner:
The board shall distribute one-sixth (1/6) of the base amount for each emergency communications district every two (2) months, beginning at the end of the second month of each fiscal year; and
Any emergency communications district with a locally established 911 surcharge in effect as of July 1, 2011, less than the maximum allowable surcharge then in effect shall be eligible to apply to the board for an increase in the base amount. The board shall promulgate rules and regulations to facilitate such a request and to set minimum criteria that the emergency communication district must satisfy to obtain increased funding. The board shall not be obligated to increase the base amount if the board lacks sufficient funds or if the board, after reviewing its criteria as set out in its rules, finds the emergency communication district has not met the guidelines.
The board's operational expenses shall include the implementation and maintenance of an IP-based next generation 911 network and any future 911 system advancements the board deems necessary; provided, that the board shall provide a report to the information systems council each year to describe any such future 911 system advancements. The board's operational expenses shall also include funding to the Tennessee public utility commission for the Tennessee relay services/telecommunications devices access program (TRS/TDAP), which provides assistance to those Tennesseans whose disabilities interfere with their use of communications services and technologies. Funding provided by the board shall not exceed the total cost of the TRS /TDAP program in 2012 unless approved by the fiscal review committee.