Small cost for safety

Ask anyone with a camera, a computer, a telephone or a DVD player: Keeping up with electronic technology is a daunting and costly race.

But weighing the price tag of a plasma flat-screen TV for the den is just a consumer choice. Deciding on a communications system that fire and law enforcement agencies need during emergencies is a public-safety imperative.

In the May 20 election, ballots for which have been mailed, Spokane County voters must decide on a proposal of the latter kind. Proposition 1 is a 0.1 percent sales tax that would be dedicated to the county’s emergency communications equipment, replacing a sadly neglected and outdated analog system with a digital system that conforms to new federal requirements.

And, oh yes, it would restore the Crime Check phone line on which community members call in crime reports and concerns that don’t justify a 911 call.

A similar measure was turned back last year by a scant 288 votes. Advocates think one reason was their failure to promote the Crime Check element. Another was the unending nature of the 2007 tax proposal. This year’s version limits the tax to 10 years, after which it would expire unless voters renewed it.

How burdensome would the tax be? If you buy that plasma TV for $1,000, you’d pay an extra dollar. If you bought a new cell phone for $100, Proposition 1 would cost you a dime.

There will be arguments that other funding sources could be found or that other county expenditures have wasted money that could have gone to this purpose. Well, maybe, but 10 cents on a $100 purchase is a cheap price to pay for an essential public service.

With today’s soon-to-be obsolete equipment, local firefighters, police and sheriff’s deputies often have trouble talking to one another when they’re working the same emergency. The resulting risk to them as well as the public is not conscionable.

Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission will not allow local governments to continue using their analog equipment after 2013. Everybody in the country is required to go to a 700-megahertz, narrow-band grid. You don’t need to speak the lingo to understand that conversion is not negotiable.

Proposition 1 would give the county funding to make the change, upgrade equipment, restore Crime Check and establish a reverse 911 feature with which authorities could alert residents to neighborhood emergencies. And with respect to other funding sources, the county already has a federal interoperability grant that must be used by 2010. Out of $19.1 million the state had to distribute, $2.3 million came to Spokane County, based on the quality of its plans. In Proposition 1, Spokane County commissioners have offered voters an emergency communications system that’s modern, effective and affordable. For 10 cents on a $100 purchase, it’s a heck of a buy.