Looong Public Hearing on Video Bill

Yesterday's public hearing of the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Energy and Utilities and the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Commerce Utilities and Rail on AB 207/SB 107 was an endurance marathon for both the legislators and their staff and for the 150 or so of us who attended to testify or observe or record. About 70 people registered to testify; probably about 50 actually did so since many had to leave as the afternoon wore on.

The AT&T-backed, fast-tracked legislation would create a new, almost entirely unregulated state-level franchise for video service and eliminate the current system of municipal cable franchises. Cable companies and telephone companies would get a state-issued permit to sell wired video anywhere in the state.

I'm against it. Read why here and here and here.

I arrived at the hearing 30 minutes early (9:30 am) and left about 6:00 pm after I testified.  I'd guess there was about 30 minutes more testimony before it ended.  Could've taken even more.  There was no break. The poor staff and legislators ate lunch at the podium and kept on calling witnesses.  They opened two overflow rooms with the audio piped in and it was still SRO until sometime after 4 pm. (Update: it went until 7 pm, a total of 9 hours.)

Cities and their access operations filled the place.  Testimony about the importance of continued local value of municipal fire training, kids TV, educational uses, and community-level video came from Oshkosh, Sun Prairie, Janesville, Milwaukee, Jefferson, Madison, Sturgeon Bay, Wausau, Rice Lake, Merrill, West Allis, the Milwaukee suburbs, and about five more I missed when I left the room from time to time.  The Communications Workers of America, AT&T's largest union, was there in force, as were AT&T's officials, lobbyists, and astroturf groups like TV4US. Video cameras from WISC-TV, WKOW-TV, CityChannel12, WYOU, and  a couple local access operations  Assorted suited folks from the cable industry, other telecom players, WCM, Wisconsin Broadcasters' Assn and a variety of legislative aides taking notes for the boss completed the crowd.

Here's WISC-TV's take from Colin Benedict:

During Tuesday's meeting, there were two major concerns expressed by those who testified. First, the bill would strip consumer protections away from cable customers. Second, it could threaten public access channels.

The most interesting testimony came from Janet Jenkins of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, who expressed concerns that AB 207/SB 107  would leave consumers totally unprotected and  the state totally handcuffed to do anything beyond grant a franchise in perpetuity.

From Milwaukee JournalSentinel coverage:

Janet Jenkins, the state's top consumer advocate, said the bill, called the Video Competition Act, would weaken existing standards in a variety of ways. She said, for instance, it would no longer ensure 30-day notice of rate increases to customers.

At the same time, she said, it would end the right to have service repaired within 72 hours and would not require credit be given on consumers' bills when a service interruption of four hours or longer occurs.

"We have significant concerns about the total lack of consumer protections in the legislation," said Jenkins, administrator of the Division of Trade and Consumer Protection.

The Capital Times's David Callender reported that Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch doesn't see the consumer issues as a problem:

Huebsch said the bill, which was the subject of a daylong standing-room-only hearing before both Assembly and Senate committees on Tuesday, would likely be up for Assembly approval by late April or early May.

He said he believes the bill should be approved quickly and that consumer issues could be resolved later.

If there are abuses, "then I guarantee you that both parties will quickly try and change that. But I don't believe you are going to see the doomsday analysis that some are (predicting) regarding the removal of those protections," Huebsch said.

Wisconsin Public Radio's coverage has audio (of course) here.

The Badger Herald's reporter, Jessi Polsky, actually stuck around long enough to accurately report my oral testimony that this bill will cause a local tax increase:

Barry Orton, professor of telecommunications at the University of Wisconsin, said the bill aims to eliminate local franchises and replace them with a single statewide franchise — in which local governments would not have any authority.

He said passing the bill would result in an increase in taxes to make up for monies formerly made through franchise fees.

Orton said franchise fees — dollars paid by private companies to local governments in exchange for use of public rights-of-way — provide great benefits to the entire community.

“[Franchise fees] pay for services that benefit all citizens, who jointly own local rights of way,” Orton said.

He added passing the bill will result in a decrease of the total amount of income from franchise fees and force many former cable customers to use a satellite product, thereby removing citizens — and income — from the franchise fee base altogether.

“The bill would achieve a 15-25 percent reduction in the franchise fee gross base,” Orton said. “[It] will cause local property taxes to rise.”

Here's my written testimony. Took it out of this already too-long and updated too many times post.

- Barry Orton

Comments

[anonymous]

My memory is not so short that I have forgotton the worse service I had ever recieved was from SBC, now ATT. I would not trust any program from them without the appropriate protections in place.

Simple is better it seems.