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from: Daily Cardinal

Senate Democrats divided on new amendment to cable bill
By: Sara Lieburn /The Daily Cardinal

The cable bill will be voted on by the full state Senate tomorrow, though some Senate Democrats disagree over the level of consumer protections present in the bill’s language. The bill has already passed the Assembly.

The state Senate will vote Thursday on the video franchise bill, which easily passed the state Assembly but is facing opposition from some Senate and Assembly Democrats concerned about consumer protections.

The primary author of the Senate version of the bill, state Sen. Jeffrey Plale, D-South Milwaukee, argues the bill will provide for greater competition among cable providers and decrease prices.

Opponents, such as state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, argue the current language of the bill is too vague to sufficiently protect consumer rights.

Vinehout said she would offer a substitute bill Thursday, including 18 pages specifying consumer rights, which she contrasted to the page-and-a-half included in Plale’s bill.

“The bill, as it’s written right now, would not give the protections that exist today. Our bill, the substitute amendment, would give much more consumer protection,” Vinehout said.

Wednesday, 15 Assembly Democrats sent a letter to Plale expressing similar concerns about consumer protections, according to the Capital Times.

Plale said he expects the bill to become law without amendments and Gov. Jim Doyle would sign it. Plale said he will not support Vinehout’s amendment and her version is likely to fail in the full Senate.

According to Vinehout, it was unknown how the current version of the bill will fare in the Senate or in front of the governor.

The Illinois Legislature passed a similar cable franchise bill , strongly lobbied for by AT&T, that included more consumer protections, according to Vinehout.

Plale said the Illinois bill had more consumer protection provisions because it did not previously have the protection currently in Wisconsin. He said the protections would be maintained in the cable bill.

“[With] everything that [Illinois] has added, they finally caught up with Wisconsin,” Plale said.

According to Plale, the Illinois bill favored AT&T over other companies, with the Wisconsin bill creating a more open economic environment.

Vinehout said AT&T could not be trusted to maintain public television channels, after Michigan passed a similar cable bill companies withdrew their support for local access channels.

According to Vinehout, the bill might also hurt rural cable service, with even Eau Claire having to wait six to seven years until AT&T provides service.

AT&T has spent $200,000 lobbying for the bill, and donated $352,000 to legislators and the governor, according to the ethics group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Opponents of the bill have spent over $100,000 trying to stop the bill.