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

[matt at noway2.thruhere.net]

This bill has some parts that are bad for the customer but great for
corporation.  In general terms, it ensures that any sort of public-sector
pricing advantage is negated.  If the public sector can and is willing to
provide a service at a price point better than a private company can or
will, the duty should be to the citizens of that area, not to the profits
of the corporation.  By way of example, based upon my personal
experiences, if you live in a city that has municipal garbage collection
you probably pay on the order of $10 per month.  If you live in a city
that does not, you can expect to pay a private company on the order of $75
a month for the same service.  I don't know about you, but I would just as
soon pay the city $10.

Take for example the following items from the bill:
Shall not air advertisements or other promotions for the  city-owned
communications service on the city's public, educational, or governmental
access channel, use city resources that are not allocated for cost
accounting purposes to the city-owned communications service to promote
city services in  comparison to private services  ...

(So they can't adverise on publicly media).
and

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

(see the example on garbage collection)

and
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

(they must pay CORPORATE TAX RATES on a public service - to up the price
tag, this keeps getting better).

Also, it prohibits the community from OWNING the infrastructure.  Sure. it
must be OWNED by a PRIVATE company and LEASED to the city.  Renting is
almost always more expensive than owning.

As far as "deeply invested in pornography", well that sounds like a bunch
of right-wing rhetoric along with "this bill will create and protect
jobs."