Note at the time of this post this article has been updated: UPDATED 2-27-2014 2:25PM: We won! Valentine has committed to UTOPIA mayors to pull Amendment 2. Now if it can just go through without any other trickery… However I can't find anything on the bill link at the bottom to support this updated note. It is based on a tweet. https://twitter.com/pashdown/status/439148181440327680
Did
you have a glimmer of hope that you’d be able to get UTOPIA service in your
city once Macquarie comes in? Sen. John Valentine just smashed it
with a hammer. His floor amendment to SB190
makes it so that only current UTOPIA cities can use a utility fee to finance
construction of the network. Any new cities that join would be unable to do so
at all.
Why
does this matter? Because Macquarie has structured the entire deal around it.
If future cities can’t do it, they can’t get the same terms that Macquarie is
offering UTOPIA. This could derail their rumored plans to cover the entire
state in gigabit fiber with over a dozen competing providers.
Right
now, the bill is in the Senate and will come to a floor vote. It’s urgent that
you contact members of the Senate, particularly your senator, to tell them to
oppose this amendment. Sen. Valentine is working in bad faith by not involving
UTOPIA cities either in this new amendment or the original bill.
Jesse Harris. Free Utopia. (Note the link at the bottom to email Senators)
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