911 tax may be coming to Kent County's 2016 ballot

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Skud

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They did a tax a while ago for cell phones to get new radios. I think it was 3 or 4 years ago. So another higher charge for the same thing???

I remember this as we used to never pay a tax on cell phones, so they got that money now more for all phones? Where was the upgrades from the cell tax?
 

drdispatch

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My policy now is to vote no an any and all taxes, no matter what, no questions asked.
That's certainly your right as a voter; but just remember that you get what you pay for.

The 9-1-1 surcharge on phone bills really is the most effective way to fund a dispatch operation. We tried a ballot initiative 2 years ago to increase it, which failed. So we had to resort to charging each agency we dispatch for a fee per call for service. The larger, busier agencies pay more, the townships whose fire departments don't run medical calls pay less. A jurisdiction that has a public safety department gets "double-dipped" so to speak. This also forced us to create a billing mechanism, and for our admin staff to allocate time to do the accounting and billing. My point is that if you expect emergency services to show up when you need them, you are going to pay for it one way or the other; either on your phone bill or in your property taxes.
 

drdispatch

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That's the problem. We citizens have no way to say NO.

A County can't increase the 9-1-1 surcharge beyond a certain level without putting it to the voters. That's your chance to say no.
If you don't want better service, then feel free to vote no.
I have no desire to hijack this thread with a debate on taxes, so I will comment on the issue no further.
 

Skud

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Where do all that 911 cell tax go? that was suppose to be for upgrades. That have that still coming in.
What's wring is I have a Kent County cell number and Kent county gets my 911 tax money even though I am in barry County and if I call 911 99% of the time it would go to Barry County.
They need to rework who gets the 911 cell phone tax charge.

That's certainly your right as a voter; but just remember that you get what you pay for.

The 9-1-1 surcharge on phone bills really is the most effective way to fund a dispatch operation. We tried a ballot initiative 2 years ago to increase it, which failed. So we had to resort to charging each agency we dispatch for a fee per call for service. The larger, busier agencies pay more, the townships whose fire departments don't run medical calls pay less. A jurisdiction that has a public safety department gets "double-dipped" so to speak. This also forced us to create a billing mechanism, and for our admin staff to allocate time to do the accounting and billing. My point is that if you expect emergency services to show up when you need them, you are going to pay for it one way or the other; either on your phone bill or in your property taxes.
 

jack3726

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Maybe it would make sense to actually explain what a possible 5-10 year plan is for services in the county. Is the plan for the county and local areas to join MPSCS or ?? How much more infrastructure would need to be put in the county to support Kent and the surrounding areas on the 800 system. Most of that is probably all ready built. Maybe the 10-20 million number would be less if they did some cost comparison charts of what they have today to what they want for the future.
 

bergg

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If they plan to go 800 Mhz, they may be including the costs of all the new radios etc. that would be needed county-wide.

I think some counties add that all in the overall "9-1-1" upgrade or whatever they call it. Saying they needed millions for new radios just doesn't sound as important as upgrading the 9-1-1 system.

That information should, and probably, will be made public before they ask voters for such a huge amount.
 
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