A bill in the Missouri Legislature may offer new ways to fund Callaway County's 911 service.
House Bill 1456 aims to modernize Missouri's 911 system, according to its supporter Sonny Saxton, president of the Missouri National Emergency Number Association. It has passed through the House and Senate and is now awaiting the governor's signature.
"They've been hammering this bill out for eight years," Callaway County Commissioner Gary Jungermann said. "I was excited about it a few years ago, and I'm excited about it now."
Missouri is the only state that cannot use funding from wireless devices to fund 911 services, a fact-sheet about the bill states. Currently, 43 counties have a landline surcharge to fund 911 services. That's a problem, bill supporters say, because more and more people are dropping landlines in favor of cellular devices.
HB 1456 would allow Missouri counties to place a surcharge up to $1 on all devices with active phone lines (excluding broadband and internet communications).
It would also establish a statewide grant pool by introducing a 3 percent surcharge to prepaid cellular devices and services. The pool would be used to consolidate and coordinate 911 services across the state, along with improving technology and training.
"At last check, 41 other states have a similar funding mechanism," Saxton said via email.
Some counties have multiple Public Safety Answering Points - 911 call centers, essentially. For example, according to Callaway County 911 Director Amber Gann, Gasconade County has a PSAP, but the city of Hermann also answers 911 calls. This can create technology compatibility issues and funding inefficiencies. The bill seeks to combine some PSAPs. However, Callaway County has only one PSAP.
New opportunity
Gann, 911 director for Callaway County, said the county's 911 services are paid in two different ways.
"We do have the landline charge," she said Friday. "We also have fees that are paid by the different entities we dispatch for. Ameren pays a fee, the county itself pays a fee, the city of Fulton pays, the city of Holts Summit, volunteer fire departments, ambulance (and so on)."
While the 911 service budget is currently healthy, that might not always be the case, Jungermann said. He said if the county wants to retain 911 dispatchers, it needs to be able to offer raises, which means increasing the funding stream.
"Every user entity has its own set of given problems and (budget limitations)," he said.
Ratcheting up user fees over time would be burdensome. Landline funding is not likely to bring in extra money, either.
"Landline funding hasn't dropped as much as you would think," Gann said. "It has dropped a little bit, but is pretty much holding steady."
If Callaway County votes to adopt the cellphone surcharge funding method, it would have to drop the landline surcharge. Jungermann said he's trying to crunch numbers to see if it would be a good trade-off.
"It's hard to get the number of cellphones in Callaway County," he said Friday. "You have to sign something to say you won't disclose that figure but you kind of have to to run the numbers."
He's assembled a committee to look into potentially switching funding mechanisms.
"The current mechanism has been in use for 12 years," Jungermann said. "I don't think that will last forever."
Gann and Jungermann weren't sure how the grant pool will work. However, each said they hope Callaway County will have the ability to dip into it for training funds.
"I think that in any 911 center, more training is always good," Gann said. "Technology is always evolving."