911 surcharge might be on Missouri ballot

Backers of a law that will place surcharges on cellphones for 911 locator services are dismayed at the prospect of it again going on a statewide ballot, while local leaders have been progressing in getting the services and would like to see the charges passed somehow.

The House of Representatives' Interim Committee on 911 Access held its final hearing last week on the needs of 911 emergency call centers and ideas for funding improvements.

Emergency call services in Missouri are funded by land-line phone taxes and can locate callers based on those phone locations. The surcharge would allow cellphones to get the same location services.

Every other state in the country has placed a surcharge on cellphone bills to keep funding for the call centers stable. The issue has gone before Missouri voters twice and been soundly defeated each time.

The result has been 911 call centers falling behind in technology. A report to the committee at an earlier meeting showed that 911 centers in more than 30 Missouri counties do not have the technology necessary to locate a person calling on a cellphone. Call centers in 17 counties do not have the technology necessary to locate an individual calling on a land line.

Several lawmakers on the 911 access committee voiced their support for legislation that would establish a 911 surcharge on cellphone bills without a public vote. But others opposed it, arguing that lawmakers were trying to avoid their responsibilities to citizens.

"I wasn't elected to run for my next election," said Rep. Dave Hinson, R-St. Clair. "I was elected to come here and make hard decisions and to do what's right for the people of the state and I hope that the rest of the committee feel that way too."

But committee chairman, Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger, R-O'Fallon, cast doubt on achieving a legislative solution.

"It's probably not going to do any other way than going to the ballot," Gatschenberger told committee members at the end of Wednesday's hearing at the State Capitol. "That's what I've been told by the one who put me in this position." He was refering to Speaker of the House Steven Tilley.

Gatschenberger said he will take the committee's ideas to Tilley, and possibly Gov. Jay Nixon to see how state leaders want to proceed. He said he has no interest in sponsoring a bill that does not make it through the legislative process.

"I'm not telling anybody to write legislation, I'm not telling anybody not to write legislation," Gatschenberger said. "I'm just saying, think of the goal we want to accomplish. We want to get statewide 911 period. That's the end game."

Rural connections

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan said when he was sworn in as president of the Missouri Sheriffs' Association, he would push to have the surcharge placed on cellphones because it will help residents and workers in rural counties.

"If a farmer is injured in the middle of a field, we don't have any way of finding his exact location if he calls on a cellphone," Jordan said shortly after being elected.

The service would be beneficial to rural counties where the timber industry is prominent, Jordan said. Because most of its work involves heavy machinery in wooded, isolated areas, the industry is prone to making emergency calls from mobile phones, Jordan said.

On Nov. 7, the Cape Girardeau County Commission signed the final contracts to begin using 911 services to track cellphone users' whereabouts. With the upgrades, emergency services will be able to pinpoint callers on a map.

Up to 68 percent of the calls to the three Primary Safety Answering Points, or PSAPs, in the county are from cellphones. The total cost of the plan is about $880,000, which will come out of 911 funding.

In Scott County, operators can locate cellphone callers by using latitude and longitude coordinates, but the emergency agency has seen revenue shortfalls recently. Revenue has dropped more than $100,000 in 10 years, Scott County Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger said. The county charges a 15 percent surcharge on land-line phones.

"As you see land-line use declining, it just makes sense to start taxing cellphones for 911," Burger said, noting that he thinks the surcharges will pass if on the ballot. "Funding is eroding fast."

Staff writer Patrick T. Sullivan contributed to this report.

Pertinent address:

Jefferson City, MO