Scott County commissioners won't raise dispatching fees

BENTON, Mo. -- Scott County commissioners have decided to drop their consideration of raising fees for smaller emergency service departments for calls dispatched through the Benton call center.

Commissioner Jamie Burger said commissioners reached the decision late last week after the Dec. 14 commission meeting in which the county's governing body talked to the administrator of the South Scott County Ambulance District about the proposal.

Commissioners had considered the idea to help make up revenue lost due to fewer residents paying the 911 tax on land-line phones and the rising cost of dispatching services. Between 2004 and 2006 the revenue brought in from the tax has fallen more than $50,000, according to commissioners.

"Most of the organizations we deal with have set their budgets, and we didn't want to impose this price increase on them," Burger said. Commissioners had not yet set an amount by which fees might be raised when they decided to drop the proposal.

Oran fire chief James Watkins criticized the proposal of raising dispatching fees. His department's calls are dispatched through the Scott County call center.

"I'm definitely pleased to hear it," Watkins said of the decision. However, Watkins still wonders what kind of fix the county can come up with in the long term to take care of the problem of falling 911 tax revenue.

Raising dispatching fees wouldn't affect most emergency services in the northern part of the county. Scott City has its own 911 call center and dispatching, which it also uses to dispatch the North Scott County Ambulance District calls.

Burger said for now the county will wait to see what kind of action the state legislature might take on allowing counties and cities to charge taxes on cellular telephones as well as land-line phones, since the decreasing revenue is largely a result of people switching their service from land-line phones to cellular phones.

The county is also still considering creating a board separate from the county commission, either by appointment or by public vote, that would administer the county's 911 services.

msanders@semissourian.com

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