[TriLUG] OT: URGENT: H.129 to be heard in Thursday's Finance Committee!

[Lance A. Brown]

David,

I would appreciate your response(s) to the points raised in this post:

http://stopthecap.com/2011/02/17/another-year-another-anti-community-broadband-bill-in-north-carolina/

Just for starters:

H.129 is remarkable for its legislative micro-management, coming from
someone who claims to oppose big government meddling.

Among its requirements:

    * Demands a public accounting for every community broadband network;
    * Limitations on service to strict city boundaries;
    * Prohibits contractual agreements with apartment and condo building
owners that mandate municipal service for individual residents;
    * Bans advertising and “promotion” of community-owned broadband
networks on Public, Education, and Government access channels;
    * Shall not price any component of its service below cost;
    * Requires payment of a special tax equal to the amount of local
property taxes and/or fees normally exempted for local government
enterprises;
    * Requires permission through an extended hearing process to win
permission before delivering service to any area deemed “unserved”;
    * Demands a laundry list of pre-conditions before obtaining
permission to shop for financing.


-- 
 GPG Fingerprint: 409B A409 A38D 92BF 15D9 6EEE 9A82 F2AC 69AC 07B9
 CACert.org Assurer