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Video-Franchising Bill Pulled In Tennessee
by Michael Martinez
The sponsor of a measure to overhaul Tennessee's cable rules to allow for statewide video franchises has decided to withdraw the bill.
State Rep. Steve McDaniel told reporters in Nashville on Wednesday that he is taking his proposal "off notice" until 2008. His bill would have allowed video service providers to enter the state's market in one fell swoop by applying for statewide franchises. They currently must reach separate deals with localities.
McDaniel told AP that he was disappointed by the way local governments had been lobbying against the bill. The Republican lawmaker said he will not revive the proposal until he reaches a deal with those groups.
The delay is likely to frustrate AT&T, which has been pushing hard for statewide franchising reform in the Volunteer State.
AT&T lobbyist Jim Spears told The Nashville City Paper earlier this month that his company would not ask again for statewide franchising if a bill is not passed this year. He also said "hundreds of millions" of dollars AT&T planned to invest in Tennessee are contingent on securing a statewide franchising deal.
AT&T Tennessee President Marty Dickens told the newspaper on Wednesday that the firm will "re-evaluate its strategy for investment and video competition in Tennessee." He said consumers would suffer as a result of the bill being delayed.
Statewide video-franchising laws have been enacted in several states in recent years. But the companies pushing them say they are frustrated by how slow the legislative process is taking in some states. Last month, Verizon Communications suspended its applications for local franchises in Massachusetts. The company is lobbying aggressively for legislation to allow statewide deals.
Two key Democratic members of the state's congressional delegation, Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Edward Markey, have urged the company to finish building high-speed Internet infrastructure in Massachusetts. Kerry, a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said last month that he hopes Verizon's plans to suspend its franchise applications are not "part of some cynical bargaining agreement" to get a statewide franchise.
Verizon has maintained that it will continue to build a fiber-optic network there and that it also intends to secure more Massachusetts franchises this year.
Franchising legislation also is pending in Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Florida legislature cleared a franchising bill to GOP Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this month. Opponents of the measure are pressuring Crist to veto it.
Calif. County Loses Dispute Over Geographic Data
Civil libertarians in California this week declared victory in a dispute over the availability of map data stored in a Silicon Valley county's geographic information system.
The Santa Clara County Superior Court ruled that access to the county's system should not be limited to those willing to pay exorbitant fees. According to the court, the "base map" that forms the backbone of the system should be considered a public record and be made available at minimal cost.
The California First Amendment Coalition sued the county to force it to share geographic information on each parcel of property in its jurisdiction. The county has been charging people thousands of dollars for access to that information. It argued that that system included sensitive proprietary information that would be exposed if the access fees were waived.
Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg found that the county's concerns about compromising trade secrets were invalidated by the fact that it already has been selling the data to private entities. He said the county failed to demonstrate an "overriding interest" to deny disclosure of the information to the public.
"If the security issue were of greater importance, one would think that there would be no dissemination of the GIS base map whatever," he said in a 28-page opinion.
The coalition's executive director, Peter Scheer, said the Santa Clara ruling will help his organization make a case for the disclosure of data in 13 other California counties that limit access to their geographic information systems. He said he hopes Orange County in particular will reconsider its policies.
"While we encourage agencies to create databases and adapt public records to new technologies, the resulting applications cannot be run as monopoly businesses," Scheer said.
Rachel Matteo-Boehm, the coalition's lead attorney in the case, said the outcome will provide journalists and "ordinary citizens" with a "powerful tool for judging government performance in such areas as tax assessments, zoning variances and decisions on real-estate development."
State CIOs Urged To Collaborate More
State chief information officers need to do a better job collaborating with each other across borders, according to a new report. A brief published by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers this week found that states can save money and dramatically improve government services by coordinating their information technology programs.
Streamlined information-sharing will help states deliver more efficient services in various areas, including health information technology, law enforcement and public safety, the report said. It also said advances in social-networking technologies like blogs, discussion forums and "wiki" Web sites that anyone can edit have given states new mechanisms to collaborate.
"This type of mass collaboration is unprecedented and, as the world grows smaller thanks to technological innovation, citizens have come to expect many services to be streamlined and accessible at their convenience," the report said.
The association said states will face consequences if they do not take advantage of technological opportunities to combine forces. The group warned that those who avoid collaborative efforts will be forgoing valuable innovative networks.
"State CIOs must not shy away from potential innovation for reasons of difficulty," the report said. "If state CIOs choose not to collaborate, they may face fragmented services and increased costs of providing services."
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