Six New York counties accused Verizon, AT&T and other major phone service providers of shirking their duty to support local emergency call services in a state lawsuit Wednesday, joining the ranks of counties countrywide that are suing to make the telecoms pony up 911 funding. "New York is a home rule state, so the counties are in a much different position than in these other jurisdictions," Paul Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC told Law360. A home rule state is one with self-administered local taxing authorities — cities, counties or special tax jurisdictions — that can collect and use taxes independently from the state. Napoli added that their argument is supported by official state data, as he said, "a detailed report for the state comptroller found the counties were taken advantage of in the past, this is their opportunity to redress the past abuses by these carriers."   Download