§ 300. Legislative findings and declaration of intent. The legislature
recognizes the paramount importance of the health, safety and welfare of
the citizens of the state and further recognizes that when the lives or
property of its citizens are in imminent danger that timely and
appropriate assistance must be rendered.

The legislature recognizes further that such assistance is almost
always summoned by telephone and that a multiplicity of emergency
telephone numbers exist within any one county and that unintentional,
though avoidable, delays in reaching appropriate emergency aid can and
do occur to the detriment and jeopardy of life and property.

The legislature acknowledges that the three digit number, 911, is a
nationally recognized and applied telephone number which may be used to
summon emergency aid and to eliminate delays caused by lack of
familiarity with emergency numbers and by understandable confusion in
circumstances of crisis.

The legislature finds that the enhanced emergency telephone service
known as E911 provides substantial benefits beyond basic 911 systems
through the provision of selective routing and automatic number and
location identification and that these enhancements not only
significantly reduce the response time of emergency services but also
represent the state of the art in fail-safe emergency telephone system
technology.

The legislature further finds that a major obstacle to the
establishment of an E911 system in the various counties within the state
is the cost of the telecommunication equipment and services which are
necessary to provide such system.

The legislature further finds and declares that, by the enactment of
the provisions of this article, it is the intent of the legislature to
fulfill its obligation to provide for the health, safety and welfare of
the people of this state by providing counties with a funding mechanism
to assist in the payment of the costs associated with establishing and
maintaining an E911 system and thereby considerably increase the
potential for providing all citizens of this state with the valuable
services inherent in an E911 system.