By Paul Hampel
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — Both sides in the debate over a sales tax for a new emergency communications system in St. Louis County agree that such an upgrade is needed.
But they are not reading each other over who should pay for it.
To finance the system, a coalition of county and municipal officials is urging passage of the tenth-of-a-cent sales tax on Tuesday’'s ballot.
Opponents say other sources should foot the bill, namely the federal government and the new casino in Lemay. In addition, some suggest that before equipment is bought, why not begin the process of consolidating some of the county’'s 64 police, 43 fire and 26 emergency call agencies? Consolidation, they say, would reduce the hardware needed for a system.
The tax would raise $16 million a year to finance $100 million in bonds over 20 years.
A fact sheet from the St. Louis County Emergency Communications Commission, which would oversee spending the tax money, said it would allocate $80 million for a system that would allow all police, firefighters, ambulance other emergency personnel to talk with one another by radio.
At present, departments have incompatible radios.
An additional $10 million would go for gear to pinpoint the locations of cell phone calls and to upgrade emergency sirens; and another $10 million is allocated for project management and engineering work.
County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch has endorsed the tax.
“Right now, we’'re using an antique radio system,” McCulloch says. “When there’'s a major traffic accident, police at one end can’'t even communicate with firemen at the other end.”
The federal government requires public safety communications operators to narrow the band of the frequencies they use by Dec. 31, 2012.
That regulation will require new radios. Establishing a countywide system would allow bulk purchases that would save taxpayers money, McCulloch said.
County Councilman Steve Stenger, D-Affton, agrees with McCulloch that the system is needed.
But he contends that a federal mandate should include federal money.
“A sales tax places it on the back of the St. Louis County consumer,” Stenger said. “I would make this point: The federal government has given hundreds of billions to banks, some of which are paying more annually to individual executives than it would cost to implement this entire communications system.
“You’'d think that since the federal government is requiring it, they could help pay for it.”
Last November, county voters rejected a use tax that included money for the communications system.
Stenger and fellow council member Greg Quinn, R-Ballwin, voted against putting the current issue on the ballot.
Quinn asserts that a new system is in order. But he favors a private funding source.
“I believe it can be funded almost totally by revenue from the new casino in Lemay that comes on line early next year,” Quinn said, referring to the Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. project.
But Skip Mange, the spokesman for Citizens in Support of E-911, said the casino cash has been allocated.
“The great majority of those funds are committed to economic development in the Lemay area,” said Mange, a former County Council member. “If those funds were siphoned off to pay for this system, there’'d be hell to pay all over the place in Lemay.”
Quinn said he was also concerned that the tax lacked a “sunset” provision, making the tax, in effect, permanent.
Proponents say that is because continual upgrades and replacement costs will require $4 million in annual funding.
Mange said that figure “sounded high” when he first heard it.
“But that’'s what the consultant hired to examine this system told us it would cost,” he said. Mange said he assumed that the estimate was based on maintenance costs in other cities with the system.
A New Jersey-based firm called RCC Consultants Inc. conducted the study; the company could not be reached for comment.
According to the county Emergency Communications Commission, the $80 million for the radio system would be broken down this way:
- $50 million for towers, base stations, switches, computers, antennae and fiber optic and microwave connections.
- $30 million for replacing every police and fire radio in the county and all dispatching consoles.
The commission would spend $9.6 million each year to retire debt for the system.
Merging Operations
For years, various officials in the county have called for consolidating emergency services.
Five fire departments - Clayton, Maplewood, Olivette, Richmond Heights and University City - are now involved in a study on merging some operations.
McCulloch was asked at a press conference last week if it would make sense to consolidate services before spending millions of dollars on radios for all the responders.
“That’'s a legitimate issue,” McCulloch responded. “But whether we someday need only half, or a third or a fourth (of the current personnel), this system will still allow however many we have to communicate.”
A campaign finance report filed this week with the Missouri Ethics Commission shows that the campaign committee in support of the tax had raised $193,700 and spent $93,103 by last Wednesday.
Civic Progress has contributed $100,000. The Regional Business Council, which includes large and middle-size businesses, has given $75,000. Other donors included the political action committee of Enterprise Holdings Inc., AmerenUE, Anheuser Busch Cos. Inc., Drury Development Corp., Paric Corp., and two labor groups, the North County Labor Legislative Club and the political action committee of the state council of the service workers union.
Most of the spending was for mailings.
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