A tax that Oregonians pay to fund 9-1-1 emergency services will go up in January for the first time in 25 years.
The emergency communications tax costs 75 cents per month on your phone bill, or 75 cents per transaction if you buy pre-paid minutes. That amount hasn’t changed since the tax first took effect in 1995.
Starting on January, 1, 2020, the 9-1-1 tax will go up to $1 per month or pre-paid transaction. That will be followed by another increase to $1.25 a year later. The tax hike was passed with bi-partisan support on the final day of the 2019 legislative session.
The proceeds are distributed among public agencies around the state that provide emergency response services. It provides, on average, about one-quarter of the cost of those services, with the remainder coming from local property taxes.
