“With the 2016 legislative session coming up, state lawmakers must resist the urge to retreat into our own ideological camps and instead focus on what’s best for our communities. Our state legislature did that in 1999 when it passed a law concerning government-owned broadband networks (GONs). Today that bipartisan law is under threat from an unelected, five-member regulatory committee in our nation’s capital. Last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3-2 to overturn Tennessee’s law, which sets limits on GONs within state boundaries. (The vote overturned a similar law in North Carolina, too.) This law set reasonable limits on GONs to keep them pushing out other providers, which would create a government monopoly, and from exposing taxpayers to too much financial risk. Two of the commissioners on the FCC, both Republicans, voiced strong objections to this ruling, as did Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III — a Republican — and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper — a Democrat. Tennessee and North Carolina have both challenged the FCC’s ruling in federal court. As members of two different political parties, we also oppose this ruling and support this lawsuit.”
Excerpt from an editorial sent to the Tennessean by two state legislators, Representative G. A Hardaway (D-Memphis) and Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) regarding the FCC’s overturning of state laws in Tennessee and North Carolina regarding the provision of broadband by municipalities.