Lawmaker Proposes Tax To Pay For Statewide Radio System

Sen. Mick Mines of Blair, Neb., has proposed a new electricity tax that is designed to help pay for building and maintaining a statewide radio system, which would replace the current patchwork of sometimes incompatible systems used by public safety agencies in the state.

Right now, agencies use various systems that often cannot communicate with each other, and there are some dead spots around the state where police radios do not work at all.

Some state agencies built their radio systems with older technology in the 1940s and 1950s, and not all departments have been able to upgrade their radios.

The electricity tax would raise approximately $8 million a year, which would go toward paying off bonds issued to build the new statewide system.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Associated Press (01/21/04); O'Hanlon, Kevin