News on a few backlashes from the Telecom 96 Act. Some of the biggest battles brought on by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 are being fought at the city, county, and state level.
Municipalities around the country are concerned that, although the
changes brought about by the Telecommunications Act may have helped
vendors remain competitive, those changes may also have resulted in tax losses, decimation of local property values, and misuse of public lands.
To address complaints of municipalities and their lobbying organizations, the Federal Communications Commission in April created the Local and State Government Advisory Committee to facilitate talks on the following issues.
Cellular towers. The Personal Communications Services industry has
indicated it will need about 10 times as many towers as exist now,
meaning an increase from 8,000 to about 80,000 towers. Although
industry officials believe they have the right to place those towers
wherever they want, "local government views towers the same way they
view dumps, prisons, and a porch on the back of your house where
porches aren't allowed in your neighborhood. It's a zoning issue," says Robert Fogel, legislative director of the National Association of Counties.
"We believe Congress was clear about keeping the FCC out of local
zoning matters," says Kevin McCarty, assistant executive director for
the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Rights of way. With the increased competition that the
Telecommunications Act will bring, many more companies will want to
use local roads to install cables and wires. Roads generally are owned by the county, and the useful life of streets can be diminished by as much as 50 percent when extra stress is exerted on them. Local governments have retained the right to charge compensation for the use of rights of way but are being challenged by telecommunications companies through the FCC on this point, Fogel explains.
Issues of taxation. The debate centers around how much authority local governments have to impose taxes on a variety of telecommunications services consumers will be buying. In the Telecommunications Act, direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) vendors succeeded in forbidding local government from imposing a tax on DBS services. Also at the center of the taxation issue is pending legislation in both the House of
Representatives and the Senate regarding pre-empting state and local
taxation of Internet activity.
"It never was appropriate for the federal government to pre-empt state and local government tax powers," McCarty says. |
