Several members of the Surry County Board of Commissioners recently expressed dismay with a state 911 board decision to cut funding to the county.

We are just as dismayed with the decision.

The 911 board imposes a surcharge on every telephone line and cell phone account in the state, charging 70 cents per line per month, with all of that money going to the state.

The idea behind imposing this surcharge is simple: To pay for the initial installation of 911 systems, and the subsequent operating costs, a fee was placed on users of the system — telephone customers.

While no one likes taxes and fees, the benefits from the 911 system are clear, and it was certainly reasonable for citizens of each locality to help pay for their local system through the surcharges.

What is not reasonable is the state stepping in and essentially seizing the money in a manner that could very well have a locality such as Surry County subsidizing another area, say Greensboro or Charlotte. That is exactly what has happened since 2007, when the state overhauled the way 911 charges were collected and then redistributed.

Prior to 2007, all 911 money collect in a locality returned to that locality to pay for its 911 system. Now, the state takes the money, then doles it out however it sees fit. Ninetieth House District Rep. Sarah Stevens said what that means is that larger metro areas, where state leaders have to curry favor with voters, sometimes gets a higher per capita allotment from the 911 fund, while smaller localities which don’t have the political clout are often left wanting.

So we end up with what is happening in Surry County — the state has cut its funding to the Surry County 911 system, which means the resulting shortfall must be made up by county taxpayers, the same people who have already been charged to pay for the system.

John Shelton, the Surry County emergency services coordinator, said the situation is even more confounding. He said the state 911 board is sitting on a $22 million surplus — in essence, it is collecting the money, then simply holding it. How long will it be before Gov. Beverly Perdue decides to raid this fund in order to balance the budget, as she and the General Assembly seems intent upon doing with so many other funds?

Stevens, for her part, is trying to find out why Surry County’s funding was cut. It would be far better, it seems, for our General Assembly to go back to the way the funding was done, with all the money collected in a given locality going back to that locality.