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State raids fund for deaf | argusleader.com | Argus Leader
At 15 cents a month per phone line, most people probably don't notice the fee on their telephone bills.
Yet that monthly assessment on every standard phone line, cellular phone or pager now generates more than $1.5 million a year. Since 1989, the money has gone into a fund that provides telephone services to the deaf and hearing impaired.
But South Dakota lawmakers, at the request of Gov. Mike Rounds' administration, have raided the fund twice in the past two years, withdrawing $2 million. The money was spent in other areas of government.
The transfers out of the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund are not popular with people who rely on the service, which was born out of a federal law requiring equal access to telephone communications. Advocates for the deaf and hearing impaired argue that the money could have been spent on improving services and access. In addition, they warn that a new federal mandate expanding relay services is on the horizon. That mandate, requiring state relay systems to include video relay service, will carry a big price tag for the states when and if it comes, experts say.
"Video relay is very expensive - by far the most expensive - because it's labor intensive," said Joe Douglas, vice president of government relations at the National Exchange Carrier Association. The NECA administers a national fund that pays for video relay services.
A spokesman for Rounds deferred comment to the Department of Human Services, which oversees the fund. Grady Kickul, the director of rehabilitation services, said the department has informed the administration and lawmakers about possible federal mandates.
While the transfers aren't illegal, they did move money that was dedicated for a specific purpose into the general fund. Once it was transferred, the money was spent for "unspecified purposes," according to budget documents.
Lee Breard, the executive director of the South Dakota Conservative Action Council, said that should not have happened.
"When the Legislature passes or the administration requests a new tax or fee, those dollars should be dedicated to the original account in the deal," Breard said. "The new revenue should not be picked apart and pushed into the general slush fund."
State Sen. Sandy Jerstad said she learned about the transfers after the Legislature voted on them. She said the transfers were buried in the appropriations bill, and most lawmakers probably knew nothing about them.
"I think it's just wrong," said Jerstad, a Sioux Falls Democrat. "There's a lot more that could be done for deaf people in South Dakota. A lot."
Sen. Jerry Apa, a Lead Republican who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said the fund accumulated an "excessive amount" of money.
"They gave a plausible argument to use the money in the general fund," Apa said. "At the time, given the fund balance they had and how the past revenues had been used, I did not see it as an impediment to the ongoing operations."
Gaps in access to services
Advocates for the deaf say the money could have been used to provide better services.
"Frankly, the main thing here is that we are lacking access at rest areas, airports, malls, police stations, hospitals and more," said Jennifer Dans-Willey, president of the South Dakota Association of the Deaf. "There are no call boxes accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing on the interstate. There is no videophone access at rest areas on the interstate, either."
Kickul said his division seeks input from relay users about upgrades and enhancements to the system.
"We approach this in a fiscally responsible and prudent manner," he said by e-mail.
Each state has its own method for financing its relay system: Some charge more than 15 cents, and some don't tax cell phone lines.
South Dakota requires phone carriers to remit the fees every two months. Cumulatively over the past few years, those fees have generated more revenue than state officials have been willing to spend on the relay system. At the end of the fiscal year in June, the fund balance stood at $1.6 million.
"Any time there is a pot of money and it keeps growing, there are always going to be people who look at that," said Shelly Pfaff, executive director of the South Dakota Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities.
Apa agrees, saying lawmakers routinely scrutinize funds that appear to be growing larger than needed.
"They're all legislated and put into place by state statute," he said. "Ultimately, the state can take that money."
While revenues from the 15-cent monthly charge have grown with the proliferation of cell phones, the number of minutes used by the deaf and the hearing and speech impaired has declined. In 2006 the state provided 430,789 minutes of relay services. The number is expected to be below 300,000 in the current fiscal year. That's one reason lawmakers decided to take money from the fund, Apa said.
Shift toward video relay
But experts say more users - particularly deaf users - are migrating to video relay, which is provided at the federal level. In South Dakota, the state provides traditional relay services. Such services typically use a teletype system in which a deaf or hearing-impaired person types a message to a relay operator over a special phone. The operator communicates that message to a third party and then types the response back to the original caller.
Among the hearing impaired, a good number are elderly clients who gradually have lost their hearing. For them, the teletype service works well. But among deaf users, that service is "obsolete," says Dans-Willey. Deaf users prefer video relay, she said, because callers communicate with operators in American Sign Language.
"The video relay services industry has allowed us to communicate in our first language, American Sign Language, and to be understood effectively with minimal use of English, our second language," she said by e-mail.
Rick Norris, spokesman for Communication Service for the Deaf, a Sioux Falls company that provides relay services here and across the country, says the costs between traditional relay services and video relay is "almost night and day."
Video relay equipment is more expensive than equipment used in traditional relay. The labor pool is better trained and commands higher wages because video relay operators are typically qualified interpreters, Norris said.
Other states, he said, are saving money in their relay funds, preparing for the day that brings a mandate from the Federal Communications Commission requiring states to provide video relay.
"Everyone is anticipating this is going to happen," Norris said.
Kickul said the state is aware of a potential FCC mandate.
"Which relay services the mandate may include, if and when it may happen, and any funding that may follow, are concerns of every state," he said. "We continually monitor this potential situation and communications from the FCC."
Apa said he was unaware of a possible federal mandate that would cost the state more money.
Several years ago, the FCC ordered states to begin providing speech-to-speech relay services, in which operators trained to interpret speech disorders help those people communicate, said Brenda Kelly-Frey, chairwoman of the National Association of State Relay Administration. Once the mandate came down, the states had six months to react.
Kelly-Frey says a similar scenario could occur with video relay. In Maryland, where she's the assistant director of the Department of Information Technology, she estimates it would cost her state an extra $9 million a year to run the service. That state's current relay services budget is $6.7 million.
That warning has been echoed to lawmakers and state officials across the country who might be eyeing relay service funds.
"What will happen if they take the money and then a huge invoice comes at the end of the year for Internet services, and you don't have the resources there?" Kelly-Frey said. "How do you pay for that?"
More raids feared
Meanwhile, with the threat of a slowing economy and diminished tax revenues, advocates for the deaf worry that the relay fund will be raided again to help pay for other government programs.
"Each dollar in the TRS Fund can go a long way with us, and we are always grateful for that fund," Dans-Willey said in an e-mail. "We, as deaf and hard-of-hearing citizens of South Dakota, would like to see our state improve in enhancing communication access with new upgrades available, utilizing that fund."
At 15 cents a month per phone line, most people probably don't notice the fee on their telephone bills.
Yet that monthly assessment on every standard phone line, cellular phone or pager now generates more than $1.5 million a year. Since 1989, the money has gone into a fund that provides telephone services to the deaf and hearing impaired.
But South Dakota lawmakers, at the request of Gov. Mike Rounds' administration, have raided the fund twice in the past two years, withdrawing $2 million. The money was spent in other areas of government.
The transfers out of the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund are not popular with people who rely on the service, which was born out of a federal law requiring equal access to telephone communications. Advocates for the deaf and hearing impaired argue that the money could have been spent on improving services and access. In addition, they warn that a new federal mandate expanding relay services is on the horizon. That mandate, requiring state relay systems to include video relay service, will carry a big price tag for the states when and if it comes, experts say.
"Video relay is very expensive - by far the most expensive - because it's labor intensive," said Joe Douglas, vice president of government relations at the National Exchange Carrier Association. The NECA administers a national fund that pays for video relay services.
A spokesman for Rounds deferred comment to the Department of Human Services, which oversees the fund. Grady Kickul, the director of rehabilitation services, said the department has informed the administration and lawmakers about possible federal mandates.
While the transfers aren't illegal, they did move money that was dedicated for a specific purpose into the general fund. Once it was transferred, the money was spent for "unspecified purposes," according to budget documents.
Lee Breard, the executive director of the South Dakota Conservative Action Council, said that should not have happened.
"When the Legislature passes or the administration requests a new tax or fee, those dollars should be dedicated to the original account in the deal," Breard said. "The new revenue should not be picked apart and pushed into the general slush fund."
State Sen. Sandy Jerstad said she learned about the transfers after the Legislature voted on them. She said the transfers were buried in the appropriations bill, and most lawmakers probably knew nothing about them.
"I think it's just wrong," said Jerstad, a Sioux Falls Democrat. "There's a lot more that could be done for deaf people in South Dakota. A lot."
Sen. Jerry Apa, a Lead Republican who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said the fund accumulated an "excessive amount" of money.
"They gave a plausible argument to use the money in the general fund," Apa said. "At the time, given the fund balance they had and how the past revenues had been used, I did not see it as an impediment to the ongoing operations."
Gaps in access to services
Advocates for the deaf say the money could have been used to provide better services.
"Frankly, the main thing here is that we are lacking access at rest areas, airports, malls, police stations, hospitals and more," said Jennifer Dans-Willey, president of the South Dakota Association of the Deaf. "There are no call boxes accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing on the interstate. There is no videophone access at rest areas on the interstate, either."
Kickul said his division seeks input from relay users about upgrades and enhancements to the system.
"We approach this in a fiscally responsible and prudent manner," he said by e-mail.
Each state has its own method for financing its relay system: Some charge more than 15 cents, and some don't tax cell phone lines.
South Dakota requires phone carriers to remit the fees every two months. Cumulatively over the past few years, those fees have generated more revenue than state officials have been willing to spend on the relay system. At the end of the fiscal year in June, the fund balance stood at $1.6 million.
"Any time there is a pot of money and it keeps growing, there are always going to be people who look at that," said Shelly Pfaff, executive director of the South Dakota Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities.
Apa agrees, saying lawmakers routinely scrutinize funds that appear to be growing larger than needed.
"They're all legislated and put into place by state statute," he said. "Ultimately, the state can take that money."
While revenues from the 15-cent monthly charge have grown with the proliferation of cell phones, the number of minutes used by the deaf and the hearing and speech impaired has declined. In 2006 the state provided 430,789 minutes of relay services. The number is expected to be below 300,000 in the current fiscal year. That's one reason lawmakers decided to take money from the fund, Apa said.
Shift toward video relay
But experts say more users - particularly deaf users - are migrating to video relay, which is provided at the federal level. In South Dakota, the state provides traditional relay services. Such services typically use a teletype system in which a deaf or hearing-impaired person types a message to a relay operator over a special phone. The operator communicates that message to a third party and then types the response back to the original caller.
Among the hearing impaired, a good number are elderly clients who gradually have lost their hearing. For them, the teletype service works well. But among deaf users, that service is "obsolete," says Dans-Willey. Deaf users prefer video relay, she said, because callers communicate with operators in American Sign Language.
"The video relay services industry has allowed us to communicate in our first language, American Sign Language, and to be understood effectively with minimal use of English, our second language," she said by e-mail.
Rick Norris, spokesman for Communication Service for the Deaf, a Sioux Falls company that provides relay services here and across the country, says the costs between traditional relay services and video relay is "almost night and day."
Video relay equipment is more expensive than equipment used in traditional relay. The labor pool is better trained and commands higher wages because video relay operators are typically qualified interpreters, Norris said.
Other states, he said, are saving money in their relay funds, preparing for the day that brings a mandate from the Federal Communications Commission requiring states to provide video relay.
"Everyone is anticipating this is going to happen," Norris said.
Kickul said the state is aware of a potential FCC mandate.
"Which relay services the mandate may include, if and when it may happen, and any funding that may follow, are concerns of every state," he said. "We continually monitor this potential situation and communications from the FCC."
Apa said he was unaware of a possible federal mandate that would cost the state more money.
Several years ago, the FCC ordered states to begin providing speech-to-speech relay services, in which operators trained to interpret speech disorders help those people communicate, said Brenda Kelly-Frey, chairwoman of the National Association of State Relay Administration. Once the mandate came down, the states had six months to react.
Kelly-Frey says a similar scenario could occur with video relay. In Maryland, where she's the assistant director of the Department of Information Technology, she estimates it would cost her state an extra $9 million a year to run the service. That state's current relay services budget is $6.7 million.
That warning has been echoed to lawmakers and state officials across the country who might be eyeing relay service funds.
"What will happen if they take the money and then a huge invoice comes at the end of the year for Internet services, and you don't have the resources there?" Kelly-Frey said. "How do you pay for that?"
More raids feared
Meanwhile, with the threat of a slowing economy and diminished tax revenues, advocates for the deaf worry that the relay fund will be raided again to help pay for other government programs.
"Each dollar in the TRS Fund can go a long way with us, and we are always grateful for that fund," Dans-Willey said in an e-mail. "We, as deaf and hard-of-hearing citizens of South Dakota, would like to see our state improve in enhancing communication access with new upgrades available, utilizing that fund."