Kevin Kiley: “I rise to present some truly bewildering and completely unacceptable news out of my State, the State of California. I…”

“I rise to present some truly bewildering and completely unacceptable news out of my State, the State of California. I have been very critical of government performance in our State, with giving taxpayers the services that they are paying for. This latest example makes that point very clearly. For the last 6 or so years, Californians have been paying an extra fee on their phone service. This was due to legislation enacted by the legislature and signed into law by the Governor. All of these fees were collected for the purpose of creating a next-generation 911 system, which, honestly, is something we need. The system is quite outdated, antiquated, and not up to the task of serving the many different kinds of emergencies that we get in California. For the last 6 years, these extra fees paid for by California taxpayers, which are in addition to the State budget itself going up over 50 percent during that time period, were used to build out this new 911 system. The State spent $450 million building out this 911 system. Just last week, it was announced that after spending all of this money, the State is scrapping the entire project because the technology does not work. It is absolutely beyond belief.…”