The Joint Finance Committee of the state Legislature will review the cable competition bill Wednesday, with Assembly Bill 207 being the most significant and contentious piece of legislation the JFC has debated since the state budget.
The bill would loosen regulations on cable television and video service providers. It passed the state Assembly 66 to 28 in May.
Lobbyist groups have spent tens of thousands of dollars and over 1,000 hours in attempts to persuade legislators on the bill, according to the Wisconsin Ethics Board.
The Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, a lobbyist group for urban property taxpayers, released a memo Monday advocating against the bill.
The bill would do significant damage to local government and public access to local government activities, while doing nothing to accomplish the goals of video competition and lower video rates we all share,"" the memo said.
The two groups that have lobbied the most hours on the bill, each over 300 hours, are AT&T Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Association of Public, Educational and Governmental Access Channels, Inc.
WAPC Executive Director Mary Cardona said only 20 consumer protection provisions are present in the legislation, in comparison to 60 protections present in a similar Illinois cable bill.
""The bill they are trying to pass is just horrendous,"" Cardona said.
JFC member and state Sen. Robert Jauch, D-Poplar, said he has been a significant proponent of the bill since it has been discussed in the Legislature.
Jauch said he supports the bill because it could have the same effect on the cable industry that deregulation had on the telephone industry, making it more dynamic.
Jauch said the levels of consumer protections in the bill currently are enough and more might increase costs to consumers.
""The idea of empowering government bureaucrats to watch over your pocketbook and thinking they can do a better job than you can is kind of ludicrous,"" Jauch said.
Jauch said he was confident the bill would be passed out of the JFC.
Carrie Lynch, spokesperson for the new Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, who is also the co-chair of JFC, also said it was likely the bill would pass the JFC.
Lynch said Decker also supported the bill and it was likely to pass the full Senate.
