Topeka ? Legislative negotiators agreed Wednesday on the final version of a bill imposing a new, 50-cent monthly fee on wireless phones to finance improvements in county 911 systems.

Their goal is to help counties upgrade emergency communications systems, to make it easier to locate people who make emergency 911 calls on wireless phones. Some legislators think the measure could raise $7.8 million a year.

Currently, personnel in most Kansas counties’ dispatch centers are shown the number but not the location of a cell phone on which a 911 call is made — information that is automatically provided on calls made from traditional phones. Also, the bill’s supporters have said, calls are sometimes routed to the wrong county or even across state lines.

Three senators and three House members drafted the final version. If both chambers approve the measure in up-or-down votes, the bill will go to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Rep. Carl Krehbiel, one of the negotiators, said the bill will help emergency personnel or law enforcement officers find accident victims and crime victims more quickly. He said wireless phone companies can deliver information about a caller’s location, but most counties lack the equipment to receive it.

“It will save lives,” said Krehbiel, R-Moundridge. “It will prevent crimes. It will be a very good thing for public safety.”

Critics of the bill have said even a small monthly fee would add up over time for consumers. They also have suggested the state will force counties and wireless service providers to deploy technology that soon will be obsolete.

However, the negotiators supported legislation and were trying to reconcile differences between the House and Senate.

“At this point, nobody’s working against it,” said Sen. Karin Brownlee, R-Olathe, her chamber’s lead negotiator.

But Brownlee noted that legislators have been working on 911 legislation for several years.

“I know not to celebrate until we get final votes in both houses,” she said. “We’ve been close before.”

Under the House version of the bill — and negotiators’ final version — the wireless fee would be collected starting July 1, with 25 cents remaining in a user’s home county and 25 cents going to rural counties with relatively few wireless users.

Last year, the Senate approved a version imposing a 75-cent monthly fee on wireless bills, with the extra 25 cents going to wireless service providers.

Counties already can impose a monthly fee of 75 cents on traditional wireline phones to provide money for their emergency communications system.

“You don’t want to have the little old lady in a nursing home with a wireline phone paying and the real estate agent with a cell phone and Mercedes not paying,” he said.

In 2010, the fees for both wireless and wireline phones would be capped at 50 cents a month in counties with fewer than 125,000 residents. In other counties — Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee and Wyandotte — the cap would be 25 cents a month.

Enhanced 911 is House Sub for Sub for SB 153.

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