Texas Tribune by Ross Ramsey April 22, 2019
Texas cities have been debating state lawmakers over property taxes, sick leave, scooter regulation and now, over whether the cities can charge cable TV companies for using public property to connect their networks.
There’s yet another front in the war between your city and state government, and it’s cable TV.
It’s not on TV. It’s about TV — specifically, about where cable companies hang or bury their lines, and whether they should keep paying rent to cities for that space.
In many ways, it’s an ordinary fight. The companies are trying to get rid of a multi-million-dollar charge that started back in the days when they had to win permission from city governments to provide their services, and when cable and phone services weren’t bundled together.
It’s a fair amount of money at stake, too. According to the fiscal note — that’s the analysis of what House Bill 3535 and Senate Bill 1152, which are identical, would cost — the state’s big cities could take significant hits to their budgets: Houston would lose up to $27.5 million; Dallas, $9.2 million; San Antonio, $7.9 million; Austin, $6.3 million; Arlington, $2.8 million; Sugar Land, $1.2 million; Plano, $734,017; Denton, $669,548; Waco, $373,194; and The Colony, $235,000.
It makes no difference to the state budget, or to county governments. But the debate comes at a time when the state and the cities are wrestling over a list of topics, from local laws that require companies to provide paid sick leave, to religious exemption laws, to requiring voter approval when local governments raise property tax revenues more than a set amount.
More:
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/22/texas-cities-fight-texas-legislature-cable-tv/
