EMELINE COKELET

If voters approve a proposed sales tax increase for 9-1-1 services next month, they still must stay vigilant to assure participating agencies’ savings are used for public safety.

“It kind of leaves us to pay close attention and to try and keep government’s eye on the ball,” Alan Barnard, chairman of Citizens for 9-1-1, said Wednesday.

Proposition 1, which appears on the Nov. 4 general election ballot, would raise the sales tax in Clallam County by 0.1 percent, from 8.2 percent to 8.3 percent.

The revenue from the tax, estimated at $760,000 annually, would fund capital improvements and operations for the county’s two 9-1-1 emergency dispatch centers — the center in the Forks City Jail and PenCom (Peninsula Communications) in Port Angeles.

Proponents say the tax money would provide stable funding for 9-1-1 services countywide for an indefinite amount of time.

It would also offset the user fees the fire and police agencies pay to PenCom for emergency dispatching, freeing up money in the agencies’ budgets to be used for other things.

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The rest of the story appears in Thurday’s Peninsula Daily News.