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

David Hostetler hostetler.david at gmail.com
Tue Mar 15 22:27:21 EDT 2011


Ok, seriously, did any of you guys who are railing on this bill even read
it?  If anything this should be called the "Keep the government honest"
bill.  That is all it really does.  It sets standards and restrictions to
keep the government created service on the same playing field with private
service providers.  For those of you who have complained that this is about
Wilson, in the bill it says that these:

*(7)*        *Shall not subsidize the provision of communications service
with funds from any other noncommunications service, operation, or other
revenue source, including any funds or revenue generated from electric, gas,
water, sewer, or garbage services.*

*(8)*        *Shall not price any communications service below the cost of
providing the service, including any direct or indirect subsidies received
by the city-owned communications service provider and allocation of costs
associated with any shared use of buildings, equipment, vehicles, and
personnel with other city departments. The city shall, in calculating the
costs of providing the communications service, impute (i) the cost of the
capital component that is equivalent to the cost of capital available to
private communications service providers in the same locality and (ii) an
amount equal to all taxes, including property taxes, licenses, fees, and
other assessments that would apply to a private communications service
provider including federal, State, and local taxes; rights-of-way,
franchise, consent, or administrative fees; and pole attachment fees.*

*(9)*        *The city shall annually remit to the general fund of the city
an amount equivalent to all taxes or fees a private communications service
provider would be required to pay the city or county in which the city is
located, including any applicable tax refunds received by the city-owned
communications service provider because of its government status and a sum
equal to the amount of property tax that would have been due if the
city-owned communications service provider were a private communications
service provider.*

*
*
Are not used for any service started before Jan 1, 2011.  It also states
that the whole bill does not apply to areas without coverage and that
private business has only 30 days to challenge the city if they intend to
service non-covered areas ( non-covered means 90% or more without high speed
access or satellite only access ).  As far as the definition of high speed,
it says in the bill that it is defined by the FCC which according to this:

http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2010/db0720/FCC-10-129A1.pdf

<http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2010/db0720/FCC-10-129A1.pdf>Is
4Mbits down and 1Mbit up.  Really guys, you should read this stuff first.


----
Dave Hostetler
M: 919.333.0591
hostetler.david at gmail.com



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