Lawmakers in the House and Senate are using late-session political maneuvering to revive a bill designed to build out more Internet cables in Vermont.
The telecommunications bill, H.870, passed the House on April 13. The bill went over to the Senate and, because of procedural rules, has not been formally considered.
In the House, Rep. Sam Young, D-Glover, helped attach the language from H.870 to a bill dealing with Vermont’s estate tax, S.55. The House OK’d the telecommunications language 93-49 and the estate tax language 141-1 on Friday.
In the upper chamber, the Senate Finance Committee spent Thursday taking testimony on telecommunications issues. Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, said the committee may add provisions from H.870 to H.577, a bill that has to do with utilities.
The original telecommunications bill had a few main provisions: increased funding for broadband from bonded money and increasing Vermont’s phone bill tax; allowing the state to use the extra money to bring broadband to schools; and giving towns more say in the legal process for cell tower siting.
While his committee was taking testimony Thursday, Ashe said his committee didn’t have the appetite to raise the universal service fee on cell phone and landline bills this late in the session.
