[Adopted 9-6-2000]
As used in this article, unless the context clearly requires a different meaning:
AUTOMATIC LOCATION IDENTIFICATION OR ALI
A telephone network capability that enables the automatic display of information defining the geographical location of the telephone used to place a wire line 9-1-1 call.
AUTOMATIC NUMBER IDENTIFICATION OR ANI
A telephone network capability that enables the automatic display of the telephone number used to place a wire line 9-1-1 call.
ENHANCED 9-1-1 SERVICE OR E-911
A service consisting of telephone network features and public safety answering points provided for users of telephone systems, enabling such users to reach a PSAP by dialing the digits "9-1-1." Such service automatically directs 9-1-1 emergency telephone calls to the appropriate PSAPs by selective routing based on the geographical location from which the emergency call originated and provides the capability for ANI and ALI features.
LOCAL EXCHANGE CARRIER
Any public service company granted a certificate to furnish public utility service for the provision of local exchange telephone service pursuant to Chapter 10.1 (§ 56-265.1 et seq.) of Title 56 of the Code of Virginia.
PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT OR PSAP
A communications facility associated with a Buchanan County public safety agency, equipped and staffed on a twenty-four-hour basis to receive and process 911 calls.
A. 
The Buchanan County Board of Supervisors hereby finds and declares that an E-911 service network linking the PSAPs serving Buchanan County has been established with the county, or that such a system will be established in the foreseeable future, and that imposition of the E-911 tax is necessary at this time to accumulate revenues to fund the creation and maintenance of such system.
B. 
The revenues received by the county from the tax imposed by this article shall be used solely to pay for the reasonable, direct recurring and nonrecurring capital costs, and operating expenses incurred by a public safety answering point in designing, upgrading, leasing, purchasing, programming, installing, testing, administering, delivering or maintaining all necessary data, hardware and software required to receive and process emergency telephone calls through such E-911 system, including salaries and fringe benefits of dispatchers and direct takers of the E-911 system and costs incurred in training dispatchers and direct call-takers in receiving and dispatching emergency telephone calls, and the salary and fringe benefits to the public safety answering point director or coordinator so long as such person has no other duties other than the responsibility for the public safety answering point.
A special tax is hereby imposed on Buchanan County consumers of the services furnished by local exchange carriers certificated to provide wire line telephone services within the county. Such tax is imposed at the maximum permissible rate of $3 per month per customer access line, or at such lower monthly rate as the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors shall establish from time to time to ensure that the revenues collected do not exceed the amounts necessary to accomplish the purposes for which such revenues may lawfully be used.
The local E-911 tax shall not be imposed on:
A. 
Services furnished to federal, state or local government agencies.
B. 
Wireless telephone or commercial mobile radio services that are subject to the Wireless E-911 surcharge imposed by the Commonwealth of Virginia.
C. 
Individual telephone service provided to residents of nursing homes and similar adult-care facilities.
A. 
It shall be the duty of each local exchange carrier certificated to serve Buchanan County or areas thereof to bill and collect the tax monthly on each customer access line that is subject to the tax. The Buchanan County Administrator is authorized and directed to notify all such carriers of the tax and of such changes in the rate thereof as may be adopted from time to time.
B. 
Each local exchange carrier shall report and pay over all taxes collected in each calendar month to the Buchanan County Treasurer by the last business day of the second calendar month thereafter. The carrier shall be deemed to hold such collected taxes in trust for the benefit of the county and the E-911 system until they are remitted to the Treasurer.
C. 
Each such local exchange carrier shall also report monthly to the Treasurer the names and addresses of any customers with service addresses in the county who have failed or refused to pay the tax as billed. Each carrier's records of the billing and collection of the local E-911 tax shall be available for inspection by the Treasurer or other duly authorized agents of the county upon reasonable notice and during normal business hours.
D. 
As compensation for billing, collecting, accounting for and remitting the local E-911 tax, each carrier shall be entitled to deduct and keep 3% of the amount of the tax due and payable.
The County Administrator and Treasurer shall account for the local E-911 tax in a separate special revenue fund or by using a cost center and revenue accounting system acceptable to the State Auditor of Public Accounts. Revenues, expenditures and balances of such fund or cost center shall be reported in the manner required by § 15.2-2510 of the Code of Virginia and other applicable state laws or regulations. The annual independent audit of county funds shall include audit procedures, consistent with state requirements, to ensure that revenues from the E-911 tax are expended solely to pay eligible costs as defined in § 88-58 of this article and applicable provisions of state law.
Any telephone service customer who neglects, fails or refuses to pay the tax imposed by this article, and any local exchange carrier who neglects, fails or refuses to bin, collect, account for and remit such tax as required by this article, shall be guilty of a Class IV misdemeanor. Each day such neglect, failure or refusal continues shall constitute a separate offense.