LIVINGSTON COUNTY – The Livingston County Commission has decided to place a 911 Central Dispatch Sales Tax on the August 5 ballot.

According to a press release from Presiding Commissioner Ed Douglas, the commission created and approved the resolution on May 15.

Douglas also provided background and the reasoning for the commission making the decision to place this on the ballot. Thirteen years ago, Livingston County and the City of Chillicothe combined their separate 911 operations into one operation managed by the city through a contract with the county. At that time, the county had a landline phone tax that was passed through to the city to help with the management. In the original contract between the city and the county the difference in funding the operation after applying the land line revenue was split between the two entities based on population which resulted in the city paying 63% and the county paying 37%.”

Landline revenue was never nearly sufficient to cover the operation’s total expense. In the last 13 years, landlines revenue has dropped dramatically to $119,000 in 2024, a little more than 10% of the ongoing cost of 911 services.

Additionally, costs have continued to increase as call volume for 911 services has risen to roughly 40,000 calls a year which requires two full time operators 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On an ongoing basis to account for sickness, vacation and turnover 911 service requires 10 full time operators plus a manager and a supervisor.

The City of Chillicothe, running the operation through the Police Department has found it increasingly difficult to retain people for this job for multiple reasons; a lack of dedicated single function management, turnover relating to job stress, pay constraints within the current city payroll structure and the fact that when someone does leave, a new operator is required by law to have six months training before they can be a full-time operator.

Currently, the city has only six full time operators for ten positions. Consequently, the city is having to contract with an outside firm to bring in two operators for a temporary basis which is very expensive and only a temporary solution or band aid to the problem.

The city and the county have reviewed multiple solutions including outsourcing to other counties. After lengthy discussion and review, both the city and the county agree that in order to solve the funding gap, be able to hire the necessary personal and to ensure our 911 system can take advantage of the latest technologies-the long-term solution is to submit to voters a 3/8th sales tax for a separate Central Dispatch for Emergency Services.

According to the press release from Douglas, this structure is not new and in fact is currently in operation in nearly half the counties in the State of Missouri. This tax would replace the land line fee and is expected to produce $1,125,000 per year which would cover an expected first year budget of $1,023,000 plus provide funds to be set aside to upgrade the system to the latest upgrades periodically.

“No one likes to raise taxes if not absolutely necessary, but both the city and the county believe this is a necessity, and the only fiscally responsible way to ensure that emergency calls continued to be handled by staff in Livingston County. It should be noted that even with passage of the 3/8th sales tax that the city and the county both have lower sales tax rates than surrounding counties. It should also be noted that the county basically has a negligible real estate tax unlike many counties. A sales tax is the preferred way to fund this need in that our county has a high pull factor (people from counties around us visit us to make purchases more that we visit them and spend in their counties). Therefore, a significant part of the tax will be paid by visitors to our county,” Douglas said.

“This structure using the County-level Sales tax dedicated to 9-1-1 allows for a seven-member board to be appointed by the County Commission, made up initially without regard to party affiliation, who shall be selected and who shall represent the fire protection districts, ambulance districts, sheriff’s department, police department, municipalities and other emergency services and the general public. After the initial appointment the Board members shall thereafter be elected by the pubic in staggered four- year terms.”

The Livingston County Commission has placed this on the August 5, 2025 ballot.

Ballot Language

“Shall the county of Livingston impose a county sales tax of .3750 cents (3/8th of one percent) for the purpose of providing central dispatching of fire protection, emergency ambulance service, including emergency telephone services, and other emergency services?”