Section 106-H:9 Funding; Fund Established.
I. The enhanced 911 system shall be funded through a surcharge to be levied upon each residence and business telephone exchange line, including PBX trunks and Centrex lines, each individual commercial mobile radio service number, and each semi-public and public coin and public access line. No such surcharge shall be imposed upon more than 25 business telephone exchange lines, including PBX trunks and Centrex lines, or more than 25 commercial mobile radio service exchange lines per customer billing account. In the case of local exchange telephone companies, the surcharge shall be contained within tariffs or rate schedules filed with the public utilities commission and shall be billed on a monthly basis by each local exchange telephone company. In the case of an entity which provides commercial mobile radio service the surcharge shall be billed to each customer on a monthly basis and shall not be subject to any state or local tax; the surcharge shall be collected by the commercial mobile radio service provider, and may be identified on the customer's bill. Each local exchange telephone company or entity which provides commercial mobile radio service shall remit the surcharge amounts on a monthly basis to the enhanced 911 services bureau, which shall be forwarded to the state treasurer for deposit in the enhanced 911 system fund. The state treasurer shall pay expenses incurred in the administration of the enhanced 911 system from such fund. Such fund shall not lapse. If the expenditure of additional funds over budget estimates is necessary for the proper functioning of the enhanced 911 system, the department of safety may request, with prior approval of the fiscal committee of the general court, the transfer of funds from the enhanced 911 system fund to the department of safety for such purposes. The moneys in the account shall not be used for any purpose other than the development and operation of enhanced 911 services, in accordance with the terms of this chapter. Surcharge amounts shall be reviewed after the budget has been approved or modified, and if appropriate, new tariffs or rate schedules shall be filed with the public utilities commission reflecting the surcharge amount.
II. Imposition of the enhanced 911 services surcharge shall begin not later than 4 months from the approval of the budget, in order to provide adequate funding for the development of the enhanced 911 data base and other operations necessary to the development of the enhanced 911 system.
III. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, and except as otherwise provided in RSA 82-A, the records and files of the department, related to this section, are confidential and privileged. Neither the department, nor any employee of the department, nor any other person charged with the custody of such records or files, nor any vendor or any of its employees to whom such information becomes available in the performance of any contractual services for the department shall disclose any information obtained from the department's records, files, or returns or from any examination, investigation, or hearing, nor may any such employee or person be required to produce any such information for the inspection of any person or for the use in any action or proceeding except as provided in this paragraph.
(b) The following exceptions shall apply to this paragraph:
(1) Delivery to the surcharge collector or its representative of a copy of any return or other papers filed by the surcharge collector.
(2) Disclosure of department records, files, returns, or information in a New Hampshire state judicial or administrative proceeding pertaining to administration of the surcharge where the information is directly related to an issue in the proceeding regarding the surcharge under this section, or the surcharge collector whom the information concerns is a party to such proceeding, or the information concerns a transactional relationship between a person who is a party to the proceeding and the taxpayer.
(3) Disclosure to the department of revenue administration of records, files, and information required by the department of revenue administration to administer the communications services tax pursuant to RSA 82-A.
(4) Disclosure of department records, files, and information to the legislative budget assistant, when requested by the legislative budget assistant pursuant to RSA 14:31, IV.
Source. 1992, 165:1. 1997, 298:17, eff. July 1, 1997. 2003, 319:122, eff. Sept. 4, 2003. 2005, 251:5, eff. July 14, 2005.