Area 9-1-1 officials are now feeling the impact of the lack of a state budget.

You may not realize it, but you are paying a tax on your cell phone bills each month that returns to emergency response offices across the state. Tony Harris is DeWitt County's 9-1-1 Coordinator and he explains that tax goes into a statewide pot and then is distributed to individual counties, however, due to the state budget situation, those funds are frozen.

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For the DeWitt County 9-1-1 office, their challenge is not necessarily funding but rather where the funds are coming from. Harris explains residents will not see any impact by the lack of funding coming from that tax, however, drawing money from their reserves could hurt the future of a mandated project for all 9-1-1 offices.

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Harris estimates their reserves could carry the office until the end of the year before they would have to sit down and make major decisions about the future of their financial situation. With that in mind, Harris indicates they have zero plans to eliminate staff or make changes in services and stresses the public in DeWitt County will not see any changes.

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While the future of the state budget looks questionable, which would mean less revenue for the County, Harris remains confident in their planning for the future. He says they already have the ball rolling for Next Generation 9-1-1.