190.305. Emergency telephone service may be provided--tax levy authorized--governing body of Christian and Scott counties may contract for services--time limitation on tax--rate--collection. - Missouri Statutes

Emergency telephone service may be provided--tax levyauthorized--governing body of Christian and Scott counties maycontract for services--time limitation on tax--rate--collection.

190.305. 1. In addition to its other powers for the protection ofthe public health, a governing body may provide for the operation of anemergency telephone service and may pay for it by levying an emergencytelephone tax for such service in those portions of the governing body'sjurisdiction for which emergency telephone service has been contracted.The governing body may do such other acts as are expedient for theprotection and preservation of the public health and are necessary for theoperation of the emergency telephone system. The governing body is herebyauthorized to levy the tax in an amount not to exceed fifteen percent ofthe tariff local service rate, as defined in section 190.300, orseventy-five cents per access line per month, whichever is greater, exceptas provided in sections 190.325 to 190.329, in those portions of thegoverning body's jurisdiction for which emergency telephone service hasbeen contracted. In any county of the third classification with apopulation of at least thirty-two thousand but not greater than fortythousand that borders a county of the first classification, a governingbody of a third or fourth class city may, with the consent of the countycommission, contract for service with a public agency to provide serviceswithin the public agency's jurisdiction when such city is located whollywithin the jurisdiction of the public agency. Consent shall bedemonstrated by the county commission authorizing an election within thepublic agency's jurisdiction pursuant to section 190.320. Any contractbetween governing bodies and public agencies in existence on August 28,1996, that meets such criteria prior to August 28, 1996, shall berecognized if the county commission authorized the election for emergencytelephone service and a vote was held as provided in section 190.320. Thegoverning body shall provide for a board pursuant to sections 190.327 and190.328. The board of any county of the first classification with morethan one hundred four thousand six hundred but fewer than one hundred fourthousand seven hundred inhabitants shall provide services to a city locatedin more than one county only after making an agreement or contracting withthe city for such services, provided that any agreement or contract ineffect, as of January 1, 2006, shall continue until such time as asuccessor agreement or contract is entered into by the board and city andsuch agreement or contract is to provide services for a period of three ormore years.

2. The tax shall be utilized to pay for the operation of emergencytelephone service and the operational costs associated with the answeringand dispatching of emergency calls as deemed appropriate by the governingbody, and may be levied at any time subsequent to execution of a contractwith the provider of such service at the discretion of the governing body,but collection of such tax shall not begin prior to twenty-seven monthsbefore operation of the emergency telephone service and dispatch center.

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

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

5. The duty to collect the tax from a service user shall commence atsuch time as specified by the governing body in accordance with theprovisions of sections 190.300 to 190.320. The tax required to becollected by the service supplier shall be added to and may be statedseparately in the billings to the service user.

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

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

(L. 1981 H.B. 437 § 2, A.L. 1986 H.B. 1268, A.L. 1990 H.B. 951, A.L. 1993 H.B. 910 merged with S.B. 157 & 29, A.L. 1994 S.B. 700, A.L. 1996 H.B. 1097, A.L. 1997 H.B. 249, A.L. 2007 S.B. 22)