Topeka ? Wireless telephone users would pay additional charges to help improve 911 emergency service across the state under legislation reviewed Tuesday by the House Utilities Committee.

Four bills before the committee would raise monthly fees and taxes by 50 cents or 75 cents per wireless phone to finance the system and let wireless service providers recover costs associated with routing 911 calls to emergency dispatch centers.

Chairman Carl Dean Holmes, R-Liberal, said the committee would take more testimony this week and could finish work next week on a bill to forward to the House.

The goal is to provide emergency 911 operators with the location from which a call is made on a cell phone — information that is automatically provided when a call is made on a traditional landline phone.

Currently, emergency personnel in most Kansas counties’ dispatch centers are shown only the number of the cell phone from which a 911 call is made.

Judy Moler, lobbyist for the Kansas Association of Counties, said local governments for years have charged conventional telephone customers a fee to provide 911 service. With the growth of wireless use, she said, users of wired telephones have borne the brunt of costs.

Moler also said any legislation should provide funding to rural counties that don’t have enough wireless phone users to generate sufficient revenue to build their own 911 systems.

Legislators have proposed establishing a revolving loan program, similar to those for public works projects, to help rural areas.

Don Navinsky, chairman of the Leavenworth County Commission, said his county provides the so-called “enhanced 911” service through the Mid America Regional Council’s eight-county, bistate 911 system.

But while wireless providers charge a fee to their customers for the service, none of the revenue goes to counties to help cover their costs, he said.

Navinsky said any fees for enhanced 911 should be collected by counties, rather than having the state collect the money and then distribute it to counties.

He pointed out that the state this year withheld $90 million in aid to local governments, forcing local officials to consider budget cuts or raising taxes.

“We can’t afford any more of that,” Navinsky said.