BOISE, ID – Right now, ordering food online shares more information with the service provider than a 911 call in Idaho.

“Idaho’s outdated and deteriorating infrastructure is to blame,” Ryan Langrill, director of the Office of Performance Evaluations, wrote in a letter summarizing the watchdog state agency’s latest report.

A new system could fix that. But the report recommended the Idaho Legislature think about stabilizing funding as the state works to modernize Idaho’s emergency communications system by shifting to a secure, digital network called Next Generation 911.

State lawmakers serving on the Legislature’s Joint Legislative Oversight Committee — which orders reports from the state watchdog agency — on Thursday publicly released the report and heard its findings.

“A large-scale IT project is one of the highest risk activities that state government can undertake, as evidenced by (the Office of Performance Evaluation’s) reports on Luma, numerous education initiatives, and Medicaid payment processing,” Langrill wrote. “… Right now, no state-level entity has the authority and responsibility to manage statewide 911 initiatives. We believe the Legislature can set the state up for success by strengthening state-level authority and oversight.”

Funding for Idaho’s next generation 911 system will run out by 2031

Without changes, funding for Idaho’s Next Generation 911 system will run out in six years, the report said.

The Office of Performance Evaluations recommended the Legislature “consider developing a funding mechanism for statewide emergency communications infrastructure.”

That could be through raising taxes on phone lines by about 20 cents, or setting aside state funds, Casey Petti, a principal evaluator on the report, told state lawmakers.

The recommendation comes as Idaho’s state government faces tough finances for this fiscal year and next fiscal year.

Gov. Brad Little ordered all state agencies, besides public schools, to cut budgets by 3% mid-year amid dwindling state revenues — months after he and the Legislature passed $450 million in tax cuts. The governor’s budget chief recently told agencies those cuts would be permanent.

As the meeting ended, Rep. Steve Berch, a Boise Democrat, urged lawmakers to think about the state’s needs before cutting the state’s revenue even more.

“There isn’t a problem in this state that money can’t solve,” he said. “Especially a fast-growing state with an aging infrastructure. We’ve seen almost every (Office of Performance Evaluations) report ultimately points out that we need to make investments to solve the problems that are being presented to us. So, I hope we as legislators, as we prepare for the next session, we think about what the needs are before we start continuing cutting revenue.”

How the new system could help. And what else it recommended to get there. 

Many emergency calls in Idaho run through a copper-based network that “is aging, expensive to maintain, and vulnerable to outages,” according to the report.

“Idaho’s emergency communications system is increasingly unable to meet modern demands,” the report said. “… We found that calls from wireless phones are not routed (to emergency officials) using the caller’s exact location, which can result in calls being sent to the wrong county or state, delaying emergency response.”

The next generation 911 system could fix that issue, the report said. Using an internet-based network, the new system can route calls to local emergency officials based on people’s locations.

The Legislature should consider taking several steps to help, the report recommended, including:

• Changing state law “to evolve the Idaho Public Safety Communications Commission into a statewide entity with the authority to develop and oversee a statewide 911 system.”
• Selecting an agency to be responsible for, and have authority over, collecting and managing data for a geographic information system, or GIS, statewide.
• And “developing a funding mechanism for statewide emergency communications infrastructure.”

The state’s Public Safety Communications Commission should also work with emergency officials to “develop and publish a roadmap for the statewide transition,” the report added.

The report recommended Idaho shift to collecting 911 fees at the state level, saying the Gem State was one of only three states that collects the fees locally.

In response to the report, the head of the commission’s parent agency, the Idaho Military Division, agreed with the recommendation to consolidate payment processes.

“This is an excellent and necessary step that would reduce administrative friction, enhance accountability, and significantly improve auditing capabilities across the system,” Idaho’s Adjutant General Timothy Donnellan wrote in a letter, shared with the report.

But he wrote that the report’s estimate for potential fees to collect — called a remittance rate — seemed “overly optimistic when compared to national standards and Idaho’s specific demographic context.”

In a separate letter in the report, Gov. Little wrote he agreed with that concern, and would tap the Idaho Military Division “to take the lead for my executive agencies in working closely with legislators to ensure a unified consensus and strategy are determined.”

This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.