RC> Yes we do, the system has to derive its funding from somewhere,
 RC> therefore 911 fees are applied as a small tax to the monthly phone bill.
 RC> On my monthly cell phone bill, its 61 cents.

   In Sweden we have more cell phone accounts than citizens (about 1.1 per)
and more than 2 land line phone accounts. If the situation in the US is
approximately the same, that means your 61 cents amounts to a total of abt.
600 million dollars. Surely your 911 service cannot cost that much?

 RC> No they are not, they simply get funded via other tax revenue your
 RC> government collects and you dont see the itemization as to which portion
 RC> of your taxes you pay personally get channeled over to it.

   Well, I guess the general idea here is, that the emergency service is a
service that should be available to everyone -- with or without a phone
(there are phones available to anyone, even those without their own), even
foreigners that visit our countries with their own cell phones, so our
local TelCos can't charge any special tax.

   And any service that should be available to all, generally is paid in
full from the "common pot", i.e. by the regular taxes here.

   I can see some advantage with your system, from a fairness POV, but I've
always been very suspicious about small fees administered by governmental
agencies. They tend to get lost to a large extent in the administration.

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