After a near death in the Georgia Senate early Thursday, a bill that allows Atlanta to charge more for 911 services has been approved on the final day of the legislative session.

House Bill 650, sponsored by Rep. Keisha Waites, D-Atlanta, initially failed in the Senate by a 19 to 32 vote Thursday morning and was then tabled.

But just before 9 p.m., and after a visit by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, the bill was revived and passed by a whopping 42 to 2 vote. The bill had previously cleared the House.

HB 650 proposes changing Atlanta’s charter to allow the city to levy a new “public safety access assessment” to cover the costs — about $16.3 million annually — of running its 911 system.

Under existing state law, a government can charge up to $1.50 per phone line to pay for 911 services. In Atlanta, that revenue only covers about two-thirds of the system’s annual price-tag.

Earlier this week, Reed described the effort as a “cost recovery measure.”

“It allows us to recoup our costs,” Reed said earlier this week, adding the measure wouldn’t increase the existing 911 fee. “It just allows us to recover the cost of providing that service … we don’t have the ability to even cover the cost of providing the services.”

City officials said they’re still exploring how much they need to charge residents to cover the costs, and what form it might take, such as a new fee or tax. State law only permits Atlanta to collect what the 911 system costs to run — not more.

Many governments are facing the same problem, supporters said, as the existing 911 fee revenue falls short of annual costs. That’s left local governments to cover the difference.

Reed spokeswoman Jenna Garland said that the city’s general fund covered the short-fall in 2014 to the tune of $5.5 million, and that the 911 system has an accumulated deficit of about $12.8 million after several years.

The Atlanta City Council will still need to pass a separate ordinance in order to charge more for the city service.