From many reports of those who attended this mornings NC House Finance Committee meeting it appears we dodged a bullet. HB1587 was changed and a new one took its place. The new bill calls for a committee to "study local government owned and operated communication services."

Also I heard,

The Senior Chair of the Committee, Luebke, spoke up and thanked the "tremendous grass roots effort" which led to "this initiative." He added: "Citizens have made a difference in this case."

To me this proves we can make a difference. But I remain vigilant. Big telco will not give up. Nor will their paid lobbyist and lawyers. Neither should we!

Here is the full text. (Thanks to Mark Turner for extruding this from the pdf and sharing it)

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2007

HOUSE BILL 1587
Committee Substitute Favorable 6/7/07
PROPOSED COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE H1587-CSTD-31 [v.1]

7/19/2007 6:20:15 PM

Short Title: The Local Gov’t Fair Competition Act.

April 19, 2007

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE JOINT LEGISLATIVE UTILITY REVIEW
COMMITTEE TO STUDY LOCAL GOVERNMENT OWNED AND OPERATED
COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1. The Joint Legislative Utility Review Committee may study local government owned and operated communication services. The Committee may propose legislation, if appropriate, to regulate the operation of local government owned and operated communications services. In making this study, the Committee shall consider:

1. The adequacy of coverage of communications services offered by currently private providers across the state, including rural and other high costs areas.
2. The adequacy of communications services currently offered by local governments.
3. The private and public costs and the benefits of providing communications service through a private communications service provider compared to a local government owned communications service provider, including the effect on existing and future jobs, actual economic development prospects, tax-base growth, education, and public health.
4. The effect on competition with privately owned communications services of local government owned and operated communication services.

SECTION 2. The Committee may make an interim report of its findings and recommendations to the 2007 General Assembly, Regular Session 2008, and shall submit a final report to the 2009 Session of the General Assembly.

SECTION 3. The Legislative Services Officer shall allocate funds appropriated to the General Assembly for the expenditures of the Joint Legislative Utility Review Committee in conducting this study.

SECTION 4. This act is effective when it becomes law.

Here is the new HB1587 - Proposed Committee Substitute Favorable 6/7/07 [PDF]

Its important to note in Section 2 there is a timeline. This gives us more time to build our grassroots movement to protect municipal broadband.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome of todays meeting, but am connivence we have a lot of work yet to do. In another post I will share what that could be and write some analysis of our mission to protect public broadband. Please leave your ideas in the comments.

I want to thank Sally Greene and Mark Kleinschmidt for going to meetings, staying concerned, passing a resolution, and working hard to stop HB1587. Also a big thanks to the Chapel Hill Town Council, the Carrboro Board of Alderman, and the Orange County Commissioners for passing resolutions against old HB1587. Also THANK YOU to the 60+ municipalities, organizations, and corporations that passed opposition resolutions and wrote letters. Your voices really made a big difference. PLUS thank you Rep. Insko, Rep. Hackney, and all the Reps on the Finance Committee. THANK YOU for changing this bill!