SECOND REGULAR SESSION

SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

HOUSE BILL NO. 1097

88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Reported from the Committee on Public Health and Welfare, April 10, 1996, with recommendation that the Senate Committee Substitute do pass and be placed on the Consent Calendar.

TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.

S1921.07C

AN ACT

To repeal section 190.305, RSMo 1994, relating to emergency response services, and to enact in lieu thereof two new sections relating to the same subject.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:

Section A.  Section 190.305, RSMo 1994, is repealed and two new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 190.305 and 1, to read as follows:

190.305.  1.  In addition to its other powers for the protection of the public health, a governing body may provide for the operation of an emergency telephone service and may pay for it by levying an emergency telephone tax for such service in those portions of the governing body=s jurisdiction for which emergency telephone service has been contracted.  The governing body may do such other acts as are expedient for the protection and preservation of the public health and are necessary for the operation of the emergency telephone system.  The governing body is hereby authorized to levy the tax in an amount not to exceed fifteen percent of the tariff local service rate, as defined in section 190.300, or seventy­five cents per access line per month, whichever is greater, except as provided in sections 190.325 to 190.329, in those portions of the governing body=s jurisdiction for which emergency telephone service has been contracted.  In any county of the third classification with a population of at least thirty-two thousand but not greater than forty thousand that borders a county of the first classification, a governing body of a third or fourth class city may, with the consent of the county commission, contract for service with a public agency to provide services within the public agency=s jurisdiction when such city is located wholly within the jurisdiction of the public agency.  Consent shall be demonstrated by the county commission authorizing an election within the public agency=s jurisdiction pursuant to section 190.320.  Any contract between governing bodies and public agencies in existence on the effective date of this section that meets such criteria prior to the effective date of this section shall be recognized if the county commission authorized the election for emergency telephone service and a vote was held as provided in section 190.320.

2.  The tax shall be utilized to pay for the operation of emergency telephone service and the operational costs associated with the answering and dispatching of emergency calls as deemed appropriate by the governing body, and may be levied at any time subsequent to execution of a contract with the provider of such service at the discretion of the governing body, but collection of such tax shall not begin prior to twenty­seven months before operation of the emergency telephone service and dispatch center.

3.  Such tax shall be levied only upon the tariff rate.  No tax shall be imposed upon more than one hundred exchange access facilities or their equivalent per person per location.

4.  Every billed service user is liable for the tax until it has been paid to the service supplier.

5.  The duty to collect the tax from a service user shall commence at such time as specified by the governing body in accordance with the provisions of sections 190.300 to 190.320. The tax required to be collected by the service supplier shall be added to and may be stated separately in the billings to the service user.

6.  Nothing in this section imposes any obligation upon a service supplier to take any legal action to enforce the collection of the tax imposed by this section.  The service supplier shall provide the governing body with a list of amounts uncollected along with the names and addresses of the service users refusing to pay the tax imposed by this section, if any.

7.  The tax imposed by this section shall be collected insofar as practicable at the same time as, and along with, the charges for the tariff rate in accordance with the regular billing practice of the service supplier.  The tariff rates determined by or stated on the billing of the service supplier are presumed to be correct if such charges were made in accordance with the service supplier=s business practices.  The presumption may be rebutted by evidence which establishes that an incorrect tariff rate was charged.

Section 1.  1.  Pursuant to this section, a ?First Responder@ program may be established which will allow the use of automatic external defibrillators by first responders.

2.  The program established pursuant to subsection 1 of this section shall be in two stages.  The first stage shall be an appropriate pilot project in the following: any county of the first classification which contains a city with a population of one hundred thousand or more inhabitants which adjoins no other county of the first classification; any county of the first classification without a charter form of government which adjoins the state of Kansas and has a population greater than eighty-eight thousand and less than one hundred thousand; any city with a population greater than seventy thousand which is within a county of the first classification without a charter form of government and such county adjoins the Missouri River and adjoins another county of the first classification without a charter form of government; any county of the third classification which adjoins the state of Arkansas but does not adjoin the Mississippi River and has a population greater than eighteen thousand and less than twenty-nine thousand; any county of the third classification with a population greater than twenty-two thousand and less than twenty-five thousand which adjoins a county of the first classification without a charter form of government with a population greater than two hundred thousand and such county of the third classification adjoins five other counties of the third classification; any county of the third classification with a population less than twenty thousand adjoining both the Mississippi River and a county of the second classification; and any county of the third classification which adjoins the state of Arkansas and contains a portion of a lake which has more than three hundred miles of shoreline within the state of Missouri. Following evaluation of the pilot projects, the department of health may make recommendations to the legislature regarding statewide implementation of the first responder early defibrillation.

T