By Ron Thaniel
October 23, 2006

With the Senate recessed until after the November elections, odds are increasing that the greatest threat to local cable franchising and telecommunications taxation authority is that key sections of the Senate telecommunications bill, the Advanced Telecommunications and Opportunity Reform Act of 2006 (H.R. 5252), will be attached to a “must pass” piece of legislation such as the expected year-end omnibus package of appropriation bills. These bills will come before the Senate when it returns for a lame duck session after the elections.

As a result, The United States Conference of Mayors is urging mayors to contact their Senators over the recess and express strong opposition to attaching any of H.R. 5252’s franchising or tax preemption language any lame duck appropriations legislation. In addition, the Conference continues to urge mayors to express strong opposition to H.R. 5252 and its sweeping local and state tax and franchising preemptions. In addition to preempting local cable franchising authority, H.R. 5252 would:

• allow video service providers to discriminate by allowing them to pick and choose which neighborhoods they wish to serve while bypassing all others completely;

• make permanent the current moratorium on taxation of Internet access while ending the “grandfather” clause that currently allows communities to continue to impose taxes on Internet access (the moratorium is slated to expire in November of 2007); and

• place a three-year moratorium on any new state or local taxes on wireless services.

Local and state government groups are united in their opposition to H.R. 5252. Your action is needed. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senators’ office and ask that they oppose H.R. 5252, and its inclusion in any last minute legislation.