Taxpayer Group Pans Pre-emption of State Broadband Law

David Williams, the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said if the Federal Communications Commission pre-empts state broadband laws in Chattanooga (TN) and Wilson (NC), it will hurt local taxpayers. A Democratic majority of the FCC is widely expected to vote Feb. 26 to pre-empt those laws after the two cities sought that move, saying the states were blocking their ability to expand their municipal broadband efforts.

Given that the meeting is the same one where the will vote on imposing some Title II regulations on Internet service providers, the municipal broadband vote has not gotten a lot of attention. Williams said that, "for the fiscal wellbeing of taxpayers" and in the interest of protecting states' rights, the FCC should not "override" those laws. "While there is significant legal debate about whether the FCC even has this authority," he said in a statement, "it is clear [FCC Chairman Tom] Wheeler's preferred path would spell almost-certain doom for local taxpayers."