SB 784 - This act allows counties or St. Louis City to submit a tax to the voters that funds enhanced 911, also referred to as wireless 911 services. The governing body must choose one of two questions to submit to voters: (1) an extension of the wire line tax for 911 services to wireless services at the same rate; or (2) combine the taxes for wired and wireless into a flat tax of $.50 per line per month.

Taxes collected pursuant to this section shall be used to pay for the operation of emergency services and for no other purpose. Counties collecting the tax before implementing service shall remit all funds collected to the state treasurer to be deposited in the 911 emergency services fund, provided they have not yet begun implementation of service within twelve months of ceasing collection of said tax.

The State Auditor shall have the authority to perform audits of both receipts and expenditures of taxes collected to ensure proper administration of said funds.

The taxes imposed with this act are due on a monthly basis and shall be remitted to the governing body by the service supplier, no later than thirty days after the close of a month. The service supplier will include a list of any and all service users who refuse to pay the tax with each return filing. Any remittance not paid within the thirty day period by the service supplier shall accrue interest at a rate of once percent per month. Nothing in this section shall prevent agreements between service suppliers and governing bodies alternating remittance schedules.

Twenty percent of the taxes collected on wireless service will be deposited into the 911 Emergency Services Fund which is created. This percentage will be decreased to 10% when at least 60% of the counties with 75% of the population have passed a tax on wireless services. Then the percentage will be eliminated two years after 100% of the counties have passed a tax on wireless services. Moneys in the fund will be used for matching grants for the purpose of implementing a comprehensive statewide 911 system. These grants will be administered by the Office of Administration in consultation with the Department of Public Safety.

Only cities passing the tax will be eligible for grants and may not receive grants for longer than three years or which have an amount exceeding 5% of the total funds available. Grants may be made on a collective basis to counties entering inter-county agreements to provide services.

The act clarifies that taxes generated by either the wired line or wireless line tax may only be used for the provision of emergency telephone services and for no other purpose. The act also authorizes the State Auditor to perform audits to ensure moneys are being used in this manner.

The act expands the scope of the Advisory Committee for 911 Service Oversight to include oversight of implementation of enhanced 911 services. The Advisory Committee is also instructed to advise the Department of Public Safety and the Office of Administration regarding the matching grants from the 911 Emergency Services Fund.

Most provisions of the current statewide enhanced 911 tax are repealed by the act.

This act is similar to SB 64 (2003).
MEGAN CRAIN