HomeMy WebLinkAboutRES-2007-052 Resolution Against House Bill 1587 The Local Government Fair Competition Act~~'~
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
RESOLUTION
AGAINST HOUSE BILL 1587
"THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT FAIR COMPETITION ACT"
WHEREAS, House Bill 1587, "The Local Government Fair Competition Act," has
been entered into the 2007 of the General Assembly of North Carolina, and has passed
from the House Public Utilities Committee to the House Finance Committee for
consideration; and
WHEREAS, the purpose of the deceptively titled House Bill 1587 is to greatly
hinder local governments in providing needed communications services, in particular
advanced high-speed broadband services, where such services are non-existent; and
WHEREAS, private companies, despite having received favorable regulatory and
tax treatment to enable broadband investment, have chosen to avoid the financial
commitment necessary to provide such top quality services, offering lesser quality, slow,
non-state-of-the-art infrastructure technologies that are not even available to all
residents; and
WHEREAS, while private companies declare top quality service is cost
prohibitive in our country and spare no expense in legislative lobbying campaigns
against private-public partnerships, the United States is rapidly losing ground to other
nations in per capita broadband deployment, access to high-capacity networks, cost per
unit of bandwidth, and growth of new broadband users; and
WHEREAS, U.S. broadband capability has fallen behind the United Kingdom,
Korea, France, Japan and Canada to name a few, and Japan has Internet access that
is at least 500 times faster than what is considered high-speed in the United States; and
WHEREAS, because broadband Internet is a new public utility necessary to
compete in the global economy of the 21St century, the deployment of true high-speed
broadband systems in all our communities is of vital importance to future economic
development, educational outreach, and community growth in North Carolina necessary
to replace lost textile, tobacco, furniture and manufacturing jobs; and
WHEREAS, the General Assembly has already established the 1) rules for
Public Enterprise (NCGS § 160A Article 16), 2) regulations through the Budget and
Fiscal Control Act (NCGS §159 Article, and 3) oversight by the Local Government
Commission (NCGS §Article 2) by which a local government must abide in order to
undertake providing an enterprise service to its community; and
WHEREAS, House Bill 1587 is counter to the Local Development Act of 1925 as
established NCGS §158 that allows local governments to aid and encourage economic
development in communities throughout North Carolina; and
WHEREAS, North Carolina law has long permitted local governments to engage
in public enterprises and there is no justification for treating communications enterprises
any differently from other public enterprises; and
WHEREAS, historically it was government that funded much of the current
corporate telecommunications infrastructure in the United States and government paid
for and developed the Internet; and
WHEREAS, the re-combining of telecommunications companies (such as AT&T
and the "baby Bells") continues to result in planned layoffs and the inability to meet the
demands of new and re-locating businesses for true high-speed broadband; and
WHEREAS, there are telecommunications designers and equipment
manufacturers and suppliers located in North Carolina who will be negatively impacted if
local government is not allowed to provide needed communications services, meaning
that North Carolina will lose more jobs by not investing in top-quality broadband
infrastructure than it will lose due to government provision of such services.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE ORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS opposes the passage of House Bill 1587 and urges all
members of the North Carolina General Assembly to vote "NO" in Committee and if
necessary on the floor of the General Assembly.
This the 26th day of June 2007
~~ G
Moses Carey, Jr., Chair
Board of County Commissioners