From: Michigan Municipal League

Issue Advisory

SUCCESS! LOCAL OFFICIALS STOP CABLE FRANCHISE VOTE
September 21, 2006

To: Mayor/President, City Manager, City Commission & Cable Commission:

Issue:
In a huge victory, local officials stopped a full House vote on HB 6456, sponsored by Rep. Mike Nofs (R-Battle Creek) early Thursday morning. After hundreds of phone calls and letters by local leaders, the legislature decided to wait until after the November election to continue discussions on this bill. Local officials were going head-to-head with big phone companies (AT&T and Verizon) and big cable companies (Comcast and Charter).

Thank you to the House Leadership and Governor Granholm, who committed to investigate solutions to concerns raised by local units of government in the coming weeks and months. Their leadership was critical in halting this legislation, which had been passed out of the House Energy and Technology committee earlier that day.

A lot of misinformation has been circulated about the legislation. Let’s be clear: this legislation has significant negative impacts to local communities and residents. And, the MML provided several amendments to the legislation in order to minimize the drastic impacts, none of which were adopted. We will be providing additional information in the coming days and weeks about the details of the legislation that was moved from committee to the House floor.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO MADE MULTIPLE CALLS ON THIS ISSUE. THIS VICTORY IS A DIRECT RESULT OF YOUR EFFORTS.

More detailed information on this issue will be in Monday’s Legislative Link. If you have any questions, please contact Joe Fivas at MML State & Federal Affairs Division at (517) 485-1314, or jfivas@mml.org.