Emergency service groups plan another 911 run

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Perhaps the third time will be a charm. If nothing else, the third proposal for a statewide funding source for wireless 911 emergency service is likely to look different than the previous two.

Missouri voters on Tuesday rejected a proposed cell phone tax for 911 service by a solid 65 percent of the vote -- an even larger margin than its 57 percent defeat when the same measure appeared on the ballot in April 1999.

Immediately after the election, some emergency service coordinators said they planned to try again -- this time, with a new approach.

"Public safety organizations are going to meet within the next month to craft legislation that will benefit the 911 centers statewide," said Doreen Draper, the 911 coordinator in Cass County and president of the Missouri chapter of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, which had opposed Proposition A on Tuesday's ballot.

"We'll have to repeal the statutes that are on the books right now," Draper said. "Hopefully, we can get something that's quality that the Missouri voters deserve, and get it through quickly."

Quickly, however, could still mean a year or two.

Under an unusual state law enacted in 1998, a wireless phone fee for 911 service can be referred to the ballot again and again by governors. But the law spells out the specifics of the proposal with provisions that some local emergency coordinators find objectionable.

For example, wireless phone companies are guaranteed part of the tax revenue as reimbursement for improving their 911 capabilities. The law also gives the state Office of Administration wide discretion in distributing the money.

In any future proposal, Draper would like to cut out the money for phone companies and assure that much of the money stays in the counties where it was paid.

Tuesday's result "is a statement by voters that this approach was the wrong way to get emergency services in place for 911 callers, and we'll take that as an order or directive to go back and work with the governor's office," said Greg Ballentine, 911 director for the Mid-America Regional Council, which administers the service in the Kansas City area and which also opposed Proposition A.

Proposition A, which would have allowed fees of up to 50 cents monthly on all wireless phones, failed in every county in the state.

It came closest to passage in Boone County, where voters rejected it by a slim 51 percent despite simultaneously approving a one-eighth cent county sales tax to benefit local law enforcement and court services.

Just six of Missouri's 114 counties have 911 systems capable of identifying the name and phone number of a wireless caller and tracing the call to a particular transmission tower and antenna, the state says.

No counties have the ability to pinpoint the exact location of a 911 call made with a wireless phone. That would require equipment able to determine the latitude and longitude of a call and pinpoint the location on a map.