Taxpayer Group Pans Pre-Emption of State Broadband Laws

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

The president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance said if the Federal Communications Commission pre-empts state broadband laws in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Wilson, N.C., it will hurt local taxpayers.  

A Democratic majority of the FCC is widely expected to vote Feb. 26 to pre-empt those laws after the two cities sought that move, saying the states were blocking their ability to expand their municipal broadband efforts. Given that the meeting is the same one where they will vote on imposing some Title II regs on Internet service providers, the municipal broadband vote has not gotten a lot of attention.  

TPA president David Williams said that, "for the fiscal wellbeing of taxpayers" and in the interest of protecting states' rights, the FCC should not "override" those laws. 

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John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.