LANSING – It appears the Michigan cable TV franchise bill is headed for Senate sign off on Tuesday without wording that would address abrogation of current franchise agreements with local governments or tackle the issue of net neutrality, which Google has been pressing for.
The chamber is expected to vote on HB 6456 on Tuesday. While amendments designed to cover those areas are likely to be offered on the floor, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming) said Monday that it appeared only technical amendments would make it onto the legislation.
“Certainly the two big ones that everyone is talking about will not be taken up,” said spokesperson Ari Adler.
Liz Boyd, spokesperson for Governor Jennifer Granholm who has made a point of insisting on consumer protections in the legislation, declined to comment on whether the lack of language on the bill addressing those points of contention would affect the chances of the bill being signed.
The administration has been privy to discussions on the cable bill, but Boyd said, “We’ll want to see what language emerges tomorrow,” before further commenting.
The legislation was moved out of the Senate Government Operations Committee last week to the floor in a substituted form, which Sikkema had then postponed a vote on to give members time to review. The amended version had provisions clarifying that companies will get credit for the franchise fees they pay, that consumers cannot have services switched on them, that fees charged for public access channels cover the cost of operations, that school districts are not viewed as video franchisers, and that cable operators would have to guarantee that local emergency alerts are broadcast.
Sen. Nancy Cassis (R-Novi) is expected to offer an amendment she had also offered in committee that would prohibit local franchise agreements from being eliminated unless a second, non-satellite provider came into a community and began providing service to 5 percent or more of the population.
That amendment puts more reasonableness back into the legislation, said David Bertram of the Michigan Townships Association, because it ensures cable companies will not up and drop their local franchise agreement under the new law.
“That amendment alone would go a long way,” he said, otherwise build-out provisions in more rural communities may get lost.
Local governments would also like to see the bill amended to further address the METRO Act. Although the committee did address the issue, Bertram said the wording could still mean the Public Service Commission could offer a partial credit or deny a credit to AT&T Metro Act payments.
On Monday, the Michigan Catholic Conference also sent a letter to all Senate members stating that net neutrality protections should be added to the bill to ensure that Internet-based religious speech is protected.
“If the Internet becomes, as it inevitably will without strong protections for net neutrality, a medium where speakers must pay to deliver their messages, religious speech will be effectively barred from the Internet,” said Paul Long, MCC’s vice president for public policy.
It appears that interested parties have one last shot at getting the bill amended in the Senate as the House is not expected to amend the bill further once it returns to that chamber. House Republican spokesperson Matt Resch said lawmakers are simply expecting to vote on concurrence with the Senate changes.
This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
