Fee hikes aid emergency
servicesNew laws charge cell phone users
an extra fee and raise the cost of car
registrations
Cellular telephone owners will be charged an additional 66 cents a month while the cost of registering a car will increase by $5 later this year under two bills signed by Gov. Linda Lingle on Thursday that aim to provide additional funds for emergency medical services.
Lingle also signed a bill appropriating $400,000 in state money to provide financial assistance to pregnant legal immigrants.
The cell phone fee, which began Thursday, is expected to raise $5.9 million a year to fund and maintain an enhanced wireless 911 system that would help emergency service providers better locate callers using cell phones.
Hawaii joins 36 other states with enhanced 911 service, Lingle said, noting that in the islands, more than half of all emergency calls are placed by cell phone users.
"Seconds count in an emergency when your life is on the line," said Honolulu Police Lt. Charles Chong, who helped shepherd the bill through this year's Legislature. "Enhanced 911 for wire lines has significantly reduced the confusion of the location of the event and significantly reduced the time necessary to deliver the emergency service."
Vehicle registrations would increase by $5 starting Oct. 1, with that money going toward an Emergency Medical Services Special Fund. The money would provide additional emergency services for the Leeward Coast, urban Honolulu and the Kahaluu-Kaaawa region of Oahu, and also fund professional development and training for paramedics.
Kelly Yamamoto, a 17-year veteran Honolulu paramedic, said the funds are needed to improve the state's outdated, underdeveloped and badly underfunded emergency services network.
"I think it's safe to say it has provided new life to our spirit and really helped us feel proud and happy that things are finally moving forward," Yamamoto said.
The $5 increase is expected to generate $5.2 million a year, based on state Department of Transportation figures showing 1.03 million vehicles registered in Hawaii in 2003.
Meanwhile, the measure to provide state-funded pregnancy care for legal immigrants restores benefits that were eliminated by federal and state welfare reforms of 1996, Lingle said.
By appropriating $400,000, the state is saving money in the long run, she said.
"One pregnant woman ... who has not received service and care on an ongoing basis throughout her pregnancy can run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills in that emergency room if a child is born -- just one child -- is born premature," Lingle said.
The money would be available to legal immigrants who entered the United States after Aug. 22, 1996, who are eligible for Medicaid but ineligible for other benefits in their first five years of residency under federal law.