Warrenton’s Board of Aldermen voted last week to allow collection of a statewide fee on prepaid wireless phone service that will benefit 911 dispatch centers in Warren County and elsewhere.
The Missouri Legislature passed a bill in 2018 creating a 3-percent fee, essentially a sales tax, on prepaid cellphone plans or “minutes” that are purchased on cards. These items are sold in stores such as local gas stations, as opposed to ongoing services contracted through companies such as AT&T or Verizon.
Money from the prepaid wireless fee is dedicated to supporting 911 dispatch services throughout Missouri. The Legislature gave local governments the option to choose whether their communities would participate in the fee.
After initially opting out last year, Warrenton aldermen voted 5-1  Nov. 5 to approve the prepaid wireless fee. Other communities in Warren County allowed it to go into effect last year.
Warren County 911 Administrator Amy Ellard said her agency will receive a guaranteed 40 percent of the fee collected in Warren County. The rest will go into a pool available to any dispatch service in the state.
Local officials don’t currently have an estimate of how much revenue the new fee will create.
Ellard said revenue for dispatch services had been suffering because of declining use of landline phones, which had their own service fee. She said the new revenue will be used to keep up with emerging technology.
“Anytime something new comes out ... we have to get upgrades, and that’s expensive,” Ellard said.
The ability to send text messages to 911 is one such technology that has existed for years, but been unavailable locally, Ellard said. Installation of the equipment and software for it costs $50,000, with thousands more each year in maintenance fees, she added. Those are expenses the dispatch center can’t currently afford.
“Any time there’s technology available that would help the community and we can’t get it, that hurts,” Ellard added.
Money from the prepaid wireless fee could also be used for any other aspect of operations or technology upgrade. To access the statewide pool of funding created from 60 percent of the fee, Ellard said the  fee has to be approved locally.
Ward 2 Alderman Gary Auch was the only alderman Nov. 5 to vote against the fee. He said the people who will pay are the ones who can least afford it.
“People who use prepaid cards generally are the poor, the elderly, people who can’t afford contract cell service,” Auch commented. “To me, it’s not a fair tax.”
Auch said he also opposes taxes from Warren County being sent to other areas of the state that he described as not supporting their own 911 service.
Ward 1 Alderman Mike Shilharvey said he previously voted to opt out of the prepaid wireless fee because of questions about the state’s plan for it. After revisions at the state level, he said he voted to support local 911 services.
“Our 911 district here needs need funding,” Shilharvey said. “If we opted out, our 911 district would not have access to the grant money that’s going to be available. I think that’s important to them to have the new technology that’s out there.”
Shilharvey said he supports funding being used to expand 911 service and connectivity throughout the state. That way, residents who are traveling through rural areas have less risk of being out of contact with emergency services.