City Council chides House for stalling bill

The Kalispell City Council informally criticized Montana House members Monday for opposing a proposed 50-cent fee increase that would help pay for Flathead County 911 upgrades.

"Our Legislature is not doing us any favors," City Manager Jim Patrick said at a council workshop session during which no votes were allowed.

However, most council members said they were disappointed that House Bill 27 has stalled in the House Appropriations Committee.

The bill would increase a state fee from 50 cents a phone to $1 a phone, with the extra money earmarked for local-level 911 improvements across Montana.

At least two of the five Flathead-area legislators opposing the proposed increase said it would be a tax increase when the state has a roughly $1 billion budget surplus. The 911 money should come from that surplus, they contended.

Flathead County's main emergency dispatch center has an annual budget of about $1.1 million.

About $350,000 come from the state's current 50-cent user fee tacked on phone bills. The rest comes from Flathead County.

A 50-cent fee increase would provide an extra $350,000 to the county's emergency dispatch center, area 911 officials said.

Flathead 911 officials say the money is needed to upgrade the center's 25-year-old equipment so it can pinpoint emergencies and the appropriate responders more quickly, as well as receiving and processing information over phone lines more efficiently. Also, regular phone costs are expected to increase in the fall.

Council member Hank Olson said: "Funding is our biggest enemy."

Fred Leistiko, chairman of the Flathead County-City 911 Administration Board, said a $1 fee still would be among the lowest state 911-related phone-user fees in the nation.

The fee-increase bill has gone through two of three required readings before the full House - passing 71-28 on the second reading.

The "yes" votes were split among Democrats and Republicans. The "no" votes were 26 Republicans, one Democrat and one Constitutionalist. The "no" votes included House Speaker Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, and John Sinrud, R-Bozeman, House Appropriations Committee chairman.

Flathead County state representatives voting for the bill were Douglas Cordier, D-Columbia Falls, William Jones, R-Bigfork, and Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish. Area representatives voting against the bill were Mark Blasdel, R-Somers, Bill Beck, R-Whitefish, George Everett, R-Kalispell, Jon Sonju, R-Kalispell, and Craig Witte, R-Kalispell. Beck and Witte are members of the Appropriations Committee.

Beck and Sonju said a fee increase should not be approved when money could come from the state surplus. They said they could support a 911 allocation from surplus.

"It is a tax. Why are we taxing people when we have a billion dollars?" Sonju said.

Everett said he sees a huge number of bills, and cannot remember them all. "I don't know which one you're talking about. I'm not on Appropriations," he said.

On Monday, Sinrud said he equates 911 fee increases with tax increases, which he opposes.

Witte and Blasdel could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

After the full House vote, the 911-fee-increase bill was referred back to the Appropriations Committee. That committee tabled the bill March 14 on "pretty much a party-line vote," Beck said.

If the bill does not leave the committee for a final House vote by Thursday, it will miss a deadline to be sent to the state Senate.

Beck said funding to help local-level 911 systems could be resurrected as an amendment to another bill.

Council members split Monday on whether a user-fee increase should be considered a tax increase. However, they supported the proposed 50-cent increase.

"They [legislators] don't want to listen to reason. Their minds are made up," said council member Duane Larson.

Patrick said if a user-fee increase dies in the Legislature, local governments will be forced to take tax proposals directly to their residents to provide 911 services - arguing that House inaction still likely would create a tax.

Council members fretted that insufficient funding for the equipment upgrades will ripple into plans to improve the county's emergency-radio equipment and to consolidate its four 911 centers.

The 911 board hired RCC Consultants of New Jersey to study Flathead County's emergency-radio network - a project independent of the upgrades for which an extra $350,000 would be earmarked.

The study noted there is poor radio coverage in the outer parts of Flathead county, especially east of Columbia Falls and west of Marion.

A solar-powered repeater on Scalplock Mountain could help, but it's not functioning because it is in a difficult spot to maintain. Other repeater towers and radio equipment also have significant maintenance problems, according to the report. Plus, some federal licenses for the county's emergency radio network have expired.

The county's emergency-radio traffic is plagued by static, hisses, commercial-radio music or dead air. Hand-held radios - extensively used by firefighters and medical responders - often don't connect with other emergency radios.

Fixing these problems could cost a few million dollars, RCC Consultants concluded.

Kalispell council members thought maintenance problems should be addressed, and that radio-network improvements should be done in digestible phases.

Meanwhile, Flathead County, Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls want to merge their individual 911 centers into an independent agency to improve emergency-dispatch coordination.

No location for the consolidated center has been chosen.

The four governments are working on a formal agreement to cover the consolidation. A stumbling block to reaching that agreement is that funding sources have not been nailed down, Leistiko said.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com