1 edit | reply to Rep Thom Tillis
Re:Let's get the facts straight The NC Anti-Muni BBND story hitting the blogs is not “misleading” or “self-serving” as Rep.Tillis calls it; the story is being broadcast so the public knows whose really behind this bill and sees the facts straight, since apparently there is alot in the legislature that is pretty crooked.
Anyone who attended last Wednesday’s House Science & Technology meeting would definitely say we need more accountability for our tax-dollars, but not accountability from local governments – accountability from our state legislators, whose tax-payer paid salaries should mean they are responsible to citizens and not to $17.2 billion out-of-state corporations named Time Warner Cable.
For instance, anyone who attended last Wednesday’s meeting was likely rendered speechless at the nonchalance of Rep. Tillis in openly accepting instruction from Time Warner Cable on how to proceed on the injunctive relief provision. A representative from the rural mountains of NC where there is no broadband, Rep. Haire, was trying to eliminate that provision. Rep. Tillis was trying to block Rep. Haire's efforts, knowing Time Warner Cable had written it into the bill to give the Company a presumption of having been wronged by local communities before that charge was proven in court. Time Warner Cable’s Brad Phillips literally stood up, walked over to Rep. Tillis and handed him a note. Within two seconds, Rep. Tillis raised his hand and told the Chair he no longer had a problem with Rep. Harris’ removal of the language and then it was voted on with unanimous voice vote. So who is Rep. Tillis accountable to?
Rep. Tillis also seems to have his facts “crooked” about why Time Warner Cable was up at the podium answering questions. Many of the committee members had questions which they asked of the Committee Chair (and lead sponsor of the bill), Rep. Ty Harrell. When they asked Rep. Harrell what certain provisions meant, Rep. Harrell appeared to have no idea and called on Brad Phillips, Time Warner Cable’s employee to answer for him. And when Mr. Phillips could not explain what the injunctive relief provision meant to the satisfaction of questioning committee members, he called on Marc Trathen, Time Warner Cable’s outside attorney. Trathen addressed the questions as only the author of the language could do. At one point, word has it that Trathen actually said something comparable to “we put this in the bill to give us standing….”
When the Chair could not explain his own bill and Time Warner Cable could, anyone at the meeting knew who wrote that bill…and who continues to write it. Rep. Tillis tells us that changes have been made to the bill which addressed local communities “valid concerns” and now they are taking “cheap shots.” Wrong. The bill prevented local communities from using any of the Obama broadband stimulus funds to build these broadband networks. (Time Warner Cable is not directly eligible for that money and wrote a cunning provision that eliminated local government eligibility because it surely gave local communities an edge in getting competitive networks built). Despite “Tillis’” change, (which no cities say they approved) the bill still prevents local communities from accessing this money because they remain subject to H1252, whose rate increase requirements, reporting and financial disclosure burdens make it impossible for them to offer “affordable” and “sustainable” broadband systems, two eligibility criteria for the stimulus funds. H1252 makes local governments treat the free grant money as if it was borrowed at private sector interest rates, and local governments must increase their broadband rates to reflect it as a cost. Higher rates make them dysfunctional in a competitive market – and who in the public would possibly want that – except for Time Warner Cable. |
