Counties see consolidation of 911 services; say cell phone tax makes sense

Cape Girardeau and Scott counties, like many in Missouri, are facing declining revenues and rising costs for 911 communications services.

Last year, Cape Girardeau County brought in $403,152 in revenue from landline telephone taxes; the county spent $504,079 on running the system and maintenance in 2016, according to county emergency-management coordinator Richard Knaup.

Revenue from landline taxes has declined 7.5 percent from 2015 to 2016, Knaup said.

Cape Girardeau County officials during a meeting March 2 discussed the possibility of consolidating 911 services.

“I didn’t think it would get this bad,” Knaup said. “Personally, I thought we were very frugal.”

Knaup said running the system costs about $14,000 a month, Knaup said.  

The county has saved money in years when there were surpluses, but that money continually is being used to cover shortfalls, Knaup said.

The reality has led Cape Girardeau County to cut some features of the system, including a satellite-phone system that could be used in emergency situations.

“We’re cutting out some things that were very nice to have and helped us but were not critical,” Knaup said.

The county also has been unable to afford enhanced 911 that allows dispatchers to pinpoint the location of cellphone callers, Knaup said.

Currently, a 911 caller in Cape Girardeau County may reach public-safety answering points in Jackson, Cape Girardeau County or Cape Girardeau.

Dispatchers see an exact address on calls from a landline, but calls from cellphones show nothing, requiring dispatchers to try to acquire crucial information from a person in an emergency situation.

Knaup gave the example of a Southeast Missouri State University student from a foreign country who did not know where she was.

“We asked what she saw. If she would have said the Bill Emerson Bridge, we could have figured it out,” Knaup said. “She said, ‘Trees.’”

In an attempt to try to solve its revenue problem, rural Scott County has reached out to other counties looking to consolidate 911 services, Scott County Commissioner Dennis Ziegenhorn said.

Scott County has four public-safety answering points with its dispatchers: Sikeston, Scott City, eastern Scott County and other rural parts of Scott County.

The Scott County Commission controls service for about 15,000 people who live in Benton and surrounding cities.

About 12 years ago, rural Scott County and Sikeston tried to consolidate but never worked out an agreement, Ziegenhorn said.

Recently, the commission suggested consolidating Cape Girardeau, New Madrid and Mississippi counties for 911 services.

“There’s no reason why we can’t combine and cut costs,” Ziegenhorn said.

Cape Girardeau County is not against consolidation in all forms. Jackson and Cape Girardeau County are combining their public-safety answering points, or PSAPs, into a central location in the sheriff’s office. But Cape Girardeau County officials argued March 6 the upfront costs of updating Scott County’s systems and maps could be detrimentally expensive with consolidating 911.

Cape Girardeau County commissioners at a meeting earlier this month said consolidation worked wonders for Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties.

Ste. Genevieve County consolidated with St. Francois County in 2010, providing money and manpower to St. Francois County’s system, according to Ste. Genevieve County Commissioner Garry Nelson.

Ste. Genevieve had faced more than $1 million in upgrades of its nearly 20-year-old 911 infrastructure.

“We were halfway through billing, and it was over $1 million,” Nelson said.

The influx of money because of the consolidation with Ste. Genevieve County helped St. Francois County keep taxes at current levels.

“We can’t express how much it worked in our favor and their favor,” Nelson said.

County commissioners also were keen on consolidation because that’s what the state wants, according to Sen. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau.

The state has more PSAPs than counties, at 163. Wallingford said the high number of PSAPs is prohibitive in creating a statewide 911 system, such as the system in Illinois.

“There’s a limited amount of money in the pie, and a lot of people are trying to get a slice,” Wallingford said.

Wallingford has a bill that would allow counties to tax up to $1 per cellphone bill with voter approval.

The bill also creates a 911 board that could approve a higher tax up to $1.50 that also would need voter approval.

Cape Girardeau County would like to tax cellphone bills rather use than a sales tax subject to economic fluctuations, Knaup said.

“Missouri is the last state in the union that doesn’t have a wireless surcharge,” Knaup said.

Wallingford’s bill also would set a 3 percent tax on prepaid phones that would go to a state grant program available to counties for 911 services.

“Prepaid phones are 34 percent of the phone market,” Wallingford said.

Wallingford, Knaup and Ziegenhorn said residents take 911 service for granted but noted the service needs funds to operate.

“I’d rather save lives than money,” Ziegenhorn said, “but eventually, you’re going to run out of money.”

bkleine@semissourian.com

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