PIERRE - Prepaid cell-phone users in South Dakota would pay a 3 percent surcharge to help pay for 911 dispatch systems under a bill a legislative committee approved Wednesday.

"We believe the new technologies we've seen have not been participating in 911 funding," state Public Safety Secretary Tom Dravland told the Senate State Affairs Committee of the South Dakota Legislature.

Supporters of SB143 included county commissioners and 911 dispatch supervisors from throughout the state.

Ted Rufledt Jr., who is deputy director of the 911 dispatch center in Rapid City, also represents the Dakota Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association. "There are a growing number of citizens who are not paying the 911 surcharge because they are using a prepaid wireless service or some type of voice-over-the-Internet service," Rufledt told the committee.

Land-line phone companies and cell-phone companies such as Verizon, whose customers already pay a 911 surcharge, also supported the measure.

The first version of the bill would have required retailers to collect the surcharge, but Shawn Lyons, a lobbyist for the South Dakota Retailers Association, said small stores would be hit with increased costs and liability. Also, store clerks would have to explain the surcharge.

The committee amended the bill to require prepaid phone services themselves to collect the surcharge.

That led to opposition from Dennis Duncan, a lobbyist for Tracfone Wireless, a company that sells prepaid cell services. Duncan had similar objections - that the surcharge would be difficult to collect.

Still, the committee approved the amended version 9-0 and sent it to the full Senate with a "do pass" recommendation.

SB173 also would create a South Dakota 911 Coordination Board to set standards for emergency dispatch in the state, and the bill calls for statewide "enhanced 911" by July 1, 2010.

Enhanced 911 systems automatically display a caller's location on a dispatcher's screen. Currently, about 73 percent of the state is covered.

The bill came out of meetings held by a task force called by Gov. Mike Rounds to study 911 issues statewide.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com