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Last modified: Thursday, May 21, 2009 3:11 PM CDT
Tax for phone relay rising 5 cents
North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Tony Clark said residents could be seeing a slight increase in their phone bills as early as June 1.
The full commission ordered an increase of two cents Wednesday of a tax designed to pay for a telephone relay service that helps the deaf or hard of hearing to use the telephone. They call an operator who relays messages to the subject of the phone call.
The tax itself is already set by North Dakota law, although the commission is directed by agencies which administer the relay program on what they think the per line charge needs to be in order to cover the cost of the program.
The increase — from three cents to five cents per-line — shouldn't alarm residents, however, according to Clark.
"Sometimes it goes up a little, sometimes it goes down a little," he said. "This per-line charge has been as high as 10 cents in the past and its been as low as three cents."
The tax is expected to raise approximately $455,000 over the course of one year and will be collected from more than 750,000 land and cell phone lines.
"The biggest reason for the rate [fluctuating] over the last few years is because there is so many more lines in North Dakota with cell phones. We've added several hundred lines we never had before," Clark said.
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