New peice from WRAL about hb1587 called Committee OKs Bill to Limit Municipal Telecom Plans. Check out the text here and the video here. This one was pretty factual with a good balance between the views. But I just don’t agree this is about any kind of fairness. No matter what big telecom says we need to have a democratically elected body providing infrastructure. Now and well into the future. Elected bodies will serve North Carolinians. If not we will elect someone else. Can the same be said about the telcom business? No. Not in this day and age where Ma Bell has returned from the dead.
Category: hb1587
Greensboro worries about HB1587
Story from the News&Record called Internet bill worries Greensboro about The City of Greensboro’s take on this bad bill hb1587. Nice to see some reporting on this from the Triad.
Bill opponents are most concerned about the ability to offer Internet access, which is increasingly seen as a necessity for businesses and education. They say the proposed restrictions could hurt municipal efforts to recruit businesses or help bring affordable broadband Internet to lower-income areas.
“Broadband is just that important. It’s just like bringing in electricity or water or gasoline, it’s that much of a need,” said ToNola Brown-Bland, an assistant city attorney for Greensboro.
Hey Blogsboro! What say you? Respect and love to my fellow blogging North Carolinians! You should be worried about this too! 🙂
HB1587 passes Utilities Committee
I went to the NC House Utilities Committee meeting this morning. It was held in the North Carolina Legislature building. I’d never been inside before and it was an eye opening experience. I was there to oppose The Local Government Fair Competition Act. Man this bill is anything but fair for local governments and its citizens!
I was extremely proud that Mark Kleinschmidt and Sally Greene, two of my local elected officials, were there too. Lots of people attended who opposed the bill also. The room was standing room only. (That green logo with the acronym G.A.T.E. was also a sticky badge many of us wore at the meeting. Thanks to the work of the City of Wilson.)
Many people, including myself, wanted to speak. But in the end only two people were allowed too. Wade Hargrove, an attorney for the Telecommunications Industry, and Wilson Mayor Bruce Rose.
Mr. Hargrove’s sound bite of the day was, “If you had closed your eyes at the hearing last week [May hearing of this committee], you might have thought you were in Moscow.” Yep. You read that right. He brandished the commie boogie man label. In a room full of local elected officials who’ve sworn to uphold the American way. I’d hazard a bet that they are all capitalist. But in this day and age of right wing control of the USA its ok to pretend you are for us or a commie pinko. Has this man ever heard of socially responsible business practices? Many of the people in the audience laughed out loud at his remark. Some went as far to tell him as he waked by that his statement was taking it too far.
Mayor Rose read a prepared speech defending his City’s work and the rights of citizens to have public infrastructure. In this case a fiber optic network that carries broadband Internet to the people of Wilson, NC. Their network construction is well underway. I have to say I’m jealous. The idea of having megabit fiber coming to my house is enticing. Some lucky people in Wilson will have a great resource at their disposal very soon. The entrepreneurial opportunities will be pretty great I bet.
Please read Sally’s post called When is a public utility not a public utility?. She took great notes. Writer extraordinar Fiona Morgan was in attendance too. She wrote a story for the Indy about this terrible bill called Cities fight bill to limit broadband.
The bill [HB1587] has strong backing on the committee—four of its members are co-sponsors, including committee chair Saunders and Vice Chair Rep. Harold Brubaker (R-Randolph). Its other sponsor, Rep. Hugh Holliman (D-Davidson), is on the finance committee. Campaign finance records show that all five of the bill’s sponsors accepted $4,000 or more in contributions from industry PACs (view chart, “The money connection”). In fact, Wells, who spoke on behalf of the industry at the hearing, personally gave $400 to Brubaker’s campaign last year.
Fiona pledged to continue to cover this story as it develops.
More documentation of this meeting coming soon…
City of Fayetteville Opposes HB1587
Yet another North Carolina City opposes HB1587! Fayetteville, NC passed a resolution against the Local Government Fair Competition Act. Here are some good bits.
WHEREAS, HB1587 is not designed to make competition fair, but to greatly hinder local governments from providing needed services where existing high quality internet services are non-existent and where private companies have chosen not to make the investment necessary to provide those services;
snip
WHEREAS, the development of new communications technologies, high speed broadband networks and their expeditious deployment in all our communities is necessary for economic development and community growth in North Carolina into the future to replace our lost textile, tobacco, furniture and manufacturing jobs.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the City of Fayetteville, North Carolina, is against the passing of HB1587, and urges all members of the North Carolina General Assembly to vote “NO” in Committee and if necessary on the Floor of the General Assembly.
Free Press State Policy Tracker for NC
FreePress.net is keeping track of legislation throughout the United States. Including North Carolina’s bad bill HB1587. From their page Legislation in North Carolina I learned about a good article at MuniWireless.com called Here we go again!.
Here is an interesting bit:
A story this week in ComputerWorld highlights Charlotte where city officials have not proceeded with a deployment announced some time ago, due to the fact that they cannot find a compelling business case to proceed. Charlotte already has a number of different competitive operators. It quotes Susan Johnson, an executive with the city’s Business Support Services department., saying that the city has been unable to find a compelling business case for the deployment because it already has numerous private competing services and relatively low broadband access rates..
That may be true for markets the size of Charlotte, but what about the future of cities whose smaller populations make them unattractive markets for commercial providers? As in Pennsylvania, we have a case where telcos are attempting to force through legislation at the state level that protects potential future markets for them while forcing local leaders to jump through burning hoops to launch needed local initiatives.
One of HB1587’s sponsors is Rep. Saunders from Mecklenburg County, which contains the City of Charlotte. So are Utility committee members Rep. Earle and Rep. Gulley. I’d like to know more about the City of Charlotte’s search for a “compelling business case”. What was the process? How did they conclude it was not “compelling”? In my mind it is worth the hard work to find one.
HB1587 reads like it was written to make it harder for the City of Charlotte to complete a plan not easier. Why would a Representatives write a bill that makes it difficult for his constituencies to make publicly OWNED WiFi happen? Will Charlotte be grandfathered from this bill’s requirements if it should pass as a new clause would allow? Could it be possible that some members of local and state government in Charlotte want to protect telecommunications companies?
Fiscal responsibility of all local municipalities is important. But not at the cost of public safety, education, and equality. We can have good spending, balanced municipal budgets, and municipal networks. Arguments against municipal network construction on the basis of cost are simple diversionary tactics of conservative political pundits who put profit before people.
WRAL story on HB1587
Good bit of journalism about the bad bill HB1587 from WRAL. You can watch the video here. Text of story here. I’m glad they focused on the effect this bill could have on the citizens of North Carolina. Brian Bowman got some good sound bites in. 🙂
NC HB1587 is still bad
Yesterday the NC House Utility Committee [excel file of emails] meet and discussed HB 1587, “The Local Government Fair Competition Act”. Turns out lots of people showed up and spoke in favor and against the bill. So the committee vote was delayed until Wednesday June 6 at 10am. Here is a synopsis of the meeting I received:
Your emails and phone calls are working! The Public Utilities Committee delayed vote on HB1587 one week, after the industry and a few members of the public spoke. The Committee Chair, Saunders (Mecklenburg) introduced a new version of HB1587 on site, advocated to push the bill to the Finance Committee with a yes vote, and then called off the vote after hearing a number of questions from his committee members (Harrison, Bryant, Coates, Holmes, McComas) and short public comment (Exec Director, North Carolina Telephone Alliance, Mayor from Mooresville, Freedom Works (industry), and Action Audits (Nash County, TJCOG, SEATOA). Saunders will reconvene the Public Utility Committee for a vote next Wednesday, June 6, ROOM 1228, LEGISLATIVE BUILDING. Please repeat your emails to committee members (attached) from your communities. Please repeat your phone calls and please come and speak on behalf of your community. Your members need to understand how this bill hurts the communities they represent! Only that will give them the leverage to vote against the wishes of the Chair.
One result of this meeting was an amendment to the Bill. I think it was in response to many localities who have already invested a lot of money in the creation of municipal networks. (fiber for voice, video, and data) In short a way to grandfather in these communities and protect them against the terrible new rules this bill would impose. Good first concession. But not enough.
This is really bad news for Chapel Hill and even Carrboro. In order to be exempt from the bill the locality would have to be deemed a utility by the rules set in this bill and other laws governing utility regulation. To my knowledge Chapel Hill wouldn’t qualify. (I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Just one citizens interpretation.)
It appears the new parts of HB1587 will allow a local government to become a telecommunications services provider with strict conditions such as:
- require municipality to hold 2 public forums
- require municipality to create a business plan
- require municipality to hold a special election (!)
- prevent a municipality from subsidizing a service
- the municipality must PAY ITSELF PROPERTY TAX as if it were a private company
- must open up ALL of its property to private use for communications businesses (poles, right of way, conduits, facilities…)
- must keep separate books on this venture
- shall conduct an individual annual audit
- the municipality must pay equal to or GREATER the amount of liability insurance as a private provider would pay
- GRANDFATHER all localities that are defined as a “public utility” BEFORE the date this bill passes
From a business perspective this may seem fair. I mean this would make local governments have to put up with the same difficulties a private business would. Right? Wrong!
I certainly don’t disagree with the idea that community forums should be held or that any group entering into a venture should write a business plan. But these other requirements would seriously cripple cash strapped local governments. Especially ones like Chapel Hill which face IMMENSE growth in the coming years. (growth = expense)
The part that is REALLY wrong about this is that it would turn a locality who choose to become a telecommunications service provider into a entity with the restrictions of a private company. This bill could PRIVATIZE local government! A serious step in the WRONG direction.
Local governments are the most direct form of democratic government in the United States. (They ain’t perfect. That’s for sure. But it is fixable. 🙂 ) They need EVERY tool they can find to protect citizens and plan for their futures. By restricting local government in this way we would be hurting millions of people in North Carolina in a very direct way.
This new amendment is a big threat from the bill sponsors. It basically says go ahead and provide telecommunications. But we’ll make it so difficult for you to get into the business you’ll think twice.
These dirty tactics are the very definition of unfair business practices. Its clear the bills sponsors don’t work for the people but for big business.
Time to email some Representatives again!
PDF HB1587 5/29/07 3:46PM
PDF HB1587 Fiscal Research Report 5/29/07
Wilson, NC builds fiber network and fights HB1587
I found this cool blog called The Fiber Optic Files – Wilson, NC today. Its written by Brian Bowman, the Public Affairs Manager for the City of Wilson. He linked to my post about the bad bill NC HB 1587. From there I learned more about the fiber network Wilson is constructing and the wonderful resolution [PDF] the Wilson City Council passed in opposition to HB 1587.
This blog also pointed me two great pieces in the Wilson Times. One is a article called Fiber bill faces nays. Both the City Manager and City Attorney of Wilson were quoted in this article. Check this out:
Wilson city manager Grant Goings said local governments have a strong history of stepping up and providing critical infrastructure when the profit motivation is not high enough to entice private sector investment.
“I suspect that there were some unhappy well drillers when the city built a public water supply system, and I doubt our sewer system was good for the septic tank business. But to move communities forward you have to invest in infrastructure,” Goings said.
Exactly! There is a long history in the United States of attempts to block the creation of public infrastructure. Water is one good historical example, so is rural telephone, and now broadband Internet. Many important services are not always profitable but are still necessary. (not to say that providing broadband to everyone wouldn’t be profitable….)
City attorney Jim Cauley said the House bill was written and supported by the telecommunications industry and is “clearly designed to protect their pocketbooks at the expense of the public good.”
“In the interest of corporate protectionism, it will create such a barrier to the construction of municipal broadband infrastructure that many citizens will not have access to high-speed fiber-optic services in the foreseeable future, thereby making our economic development efforts that much more difficult,” Cauley said.
More good points! I’d love to hear more elected officials in Chapel Hill and Carrboro speak to this.
Plus there is another Wilson Times editorial called Bill would protect monopolies.
The short title of the bill is “The Local Government Fair Competition Act,” but the honest title should be “The Monopolies Protection Act.”
The bill, which is in committee in the N.C. House, would establish a series of hurdles for local governments seeking to provide communications services, including telephone, cable television and Internet connections. While some of the provisions can be justified, others are transparently intended to discourage cities or counties from creating competing networks, such as the fiber-optic network the city of Wilson is already installing.
The bill, whose sponsors include House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman and former Speaker Harold Brubaker, would for the first time require the N.C. Utilities Commission to regulate a municipal function. None of the usual municipal utilities — water, sewer, electricity or natural gas — is regulated by the Utilities Commission, which was established to protect consumers against monopolistic corporate giants. Because consumers are also voters and can change leadership at the next election, municipal utilities have been considered self-regulating.
Great to learn about people in other municipalities fighting HB1587!
Stop NC HB 1587: Prevent Big Telecom from killing Muni WiFi
As I write this NC HB 1587 is before the Utilities Committee for consideration. Big Telecommunications companies want to prevent democratically elected bodies from bringing broadband Internet access to everyone.
Please ask your NC state Rep to vote No or ask their colleague to vote No!
Here is a Microsoft Excel document with a list of the Utilities Committee members. They are from the following counties: Randolph, Rowan, Rockingham, Nash, Hallifax, Mecklenburg, Onslow, Guilford, Iredell, Surrey, Yadkin, Davie, Iredell, Cumberland, New Hanover, and Pender Counties.
Here is what the NC League of Municipalities had to say about this bad bill:
Telecom companies want to restrict local government authority to provide communications services to citizens
Last session, the telecommunications companies pushed for and won statewide franchising of video services, claiming that the local franchising process hampered competition. That state franchising legislation imposed very little regulation and did not require companies to serve an entire community.
Now, the telecom companies are pushing HB 1587 Ă‚Â Local Government Fair Competition Act, which would place significant roadblocks and restrictions on any local government that wants to provide communications services Ă‚Â including cable, telephone, electronic voice, data, audio or video transmission and Internet access Ă‚Â to its citizens.
Access to high-speed broadband service is critical for the future economic development of our state as we attempt to replace our lost textile, tobacco, and furniture jobs. HB 1587 will effectively prevent local governments from bringing high-speed broadband to North Carolina communities, especially to rural and distressed urban areas. Through their opposition to build-out requirements, the industry has made it clear they have no intention of investing in such areas.
Municipalities are already subject to numerous public scrutiny and public accountability requirements for all infrastructure projects. These new Draconian requirements are simply designed to prevent deployment of local broadband networks, whether done alone or even in partnership with the private sector.
The League opposes HB 1587 because it seeks to undermine local authority to undertake enterprise activities Ă‚Â authority that has been upheld by the courts.
This bill was scheduled for discussion before the House Public Utilities Committee this week, but was not taken up. Please call your representatives and ask them to oppose this bill.
(cross posted from BlueNC)
Brian C. Russell 
